Laravel | groupBy returning as object - laravel

Question

I am trying to use a Laravel collection to return a groupBy as an array. However, it always seems to be returned as an object no matter what. I have tried to do $posts->groupBy('category')->toArray() but this seems to still return as an object. I have also tried $posts->groupBy('category')->all() and still it is returning as an object.
I don't know if this is something to do with Laravel returning methods within the routes, but I need this to return as an array.
Here is the code:
public function getFeatures($id)
{
return Feature::query()->get()->groupBy('category')->toArray();
}
The actual code is working fine and I'm getting results back but it just doesn't seem to be converting to an array. Thanks.

Answer 1

When doing a query to get (possibly) several items using Eloquent, Laravel will always return an instance of the Collection class that contains all the model objects. If you need them converted to array to use them in a view you could compact the elements. compact will make an associative array of the elements of the collection:
public function getFeatures($id)
{
$features = Feature::all();
return view('my_cool_view', compact($features));
}
On the other hand, if you need them converted to array to return them through an API, Laravel convert the response to JSON by default:
public function getFeatures($id)
{
return Feature::all();
}
Now, if you somehow need the collection converted to an array, just use toArray() like you indicated:
public function getFeatures($id)
{
$collection_of_features = Feature::all();
$array_of_features = $collection_of_features->toArray();
// use it for wherever you want.
}

Answer 2

By reading your comment on other answer, I realized what you mean.
Hi #HCK, thanks for the answer. The ->toArray() method doesn't seem to work and still returns it like { "category_1": [], "category_2": [] } whereas I need it to do ["category_1": [], "category_2": []]
First, this answer is based on a guess that you are doing something like this on your controller (you didn't posted the controller code):
return reponse()->json($theResponseFromGetFeaturesMethod);
Since inside php the $theResponseFromGetFeaturesMethod variable contains an dictionary array (something like ["key"=>"value]), when you convert it to a JSON, you will notice that this "conversion" happens.
This happens because Javascript arrays (and JSON) doesn't support dictionary arrays. See this sample on javascript console:
> var a = [];
undefined
> a['key'] = "value"
"value"
> a
> key: "value"
length: 0
__proto__: Array(0)
Note that the a still have a length of zero, but it now have an key property.
This happens because almost everything on javascript is actually an object. So the array is a special kind of object that have push, pop and many other array methods. Doing array[] = 'somevalue' is actually a shortcut to array.push('somevalue').
So, the behavior that you are observing is right, the toArray() method work as expected, and the JSON conversion too.
Another weird behavior is when you try to convert this PHP array to an JSON:
[
0 => 'a'
1 => 'b'
9 => 'c'
]
You will note that in this case, PHP will convert this array to an object too. The result in JSON will be:
{
"0": "a",
"1": "b",
"2": "c"
}
This is also the expected behavior, since the JSON syntax doesn't support defining the index for a value.