Get object value on an array iteration with foreach - laravel

Question

In the following very simplified example and study case, we get the list of posts and the count of comments for each post.
However, I intended to send to client side only the value, i.e. 2, and not the array object [{total: 2}]
Is there a simplified way to do this with the laravel?
Note: DB::select must be used
public function readPosts(Request $request) {
$posts = DB::select("SELECT * FROM posts");
foreach ($posts as $key => $post) {
$idComment = $post->id_comment;
$post->nComments = DB::select('SELECT COUNT(id_comment) As total FROM post_comments WHERE id_comment = ? ', [$idComment]);
}
if($posts){
return response()->json(['success'=>true, "output"=>$posts);
}else{
return response()->json(['success'=>false]);
}
}
response
data:
0:
id_post: 1
post: "post text"
nComments: [{total:2}]
1:
id_post: 2
post: "post text 2"
nComments: [{total:1}]
Expected
data:
0:
id_post: 1
post: "post text"
nComments: 2
1:
id_post: 2
post: "post text 2"
nComments: 1

Answer 1

I suggest that you can use Eloquent with eager loading to get the count.
However you need to reconstruct your tables, and build relationship with your models.
If you really want to use DB::select(),
You can just use subquery
$posts = DB::select('
SELECT posts.*, (
SELECT COUNT(id_comment) AS total
FROM post_comments
WHERE id_comment = posts.id_comment) AS total
FROM posts')

Answer 2

you can try this
public function readPosts(Request $request) {
$posts = DB::select("SELECT * FROM posts");
foreach ($posts as $key => $post) {
$idComment = $post->id_comment;
$total = DB::select('SELECT COUNT(id_comment) As total FROM post_comments WHERE id_comment = ? ', [$idComment]);
$post->nComments = $total[0]['total'];
}
if($posts){
return response()->json(['success'=>true, "output"=>$posts);
}else{
return response()->json(['success'=>false]);
}
}

Answer 3

Cleanest way would be to use the relations comments of the post
public function readPosts(Request $request) {
$posts = DB::withCount('comments')->get();
if($posts){
return response()->json(['success'=>true, "output"=>$posts);
}else{
return response()->json(['success'=>false]);
}
}
response
data:
0:
id_post: 1
post: "post text"
comments_count: 2
1:
id_post: 2
post: "post text 2"
comments_count: 1
Plus: this will take advantage of the eager loading in Eloquent and the results will be way faster and performant.

Answer 4

Try this simple
$posts = Post::withCount('comments');
dd($post);

Answer 5

You can use count() for the collections count.
foreach ($posts as $key => $post) {
$idComment = $post->id_comment;
$comments = DB::select('SELECT COUNT(id_comment) As total FROM post_comments WHERE id_comment = ? ', [$idComment]);
$post->nComments = $comments[0]['total'];
}