Laravel: getting an array inside an objet bei joinig two tables - laravel

Question

I have two tables: films and actors. Thy have a n-m relation.
I have a connection table actor_film with two columns film_id and actor_id.
In order to get the list of films added in the current month with the actors that play in each film I did this:
$current_month_film = DB::table('films')
->join('actor_film', 'actor_film.film_id', '=', 'films.id')
->join('actors', 'actors.id', '=', 'actor_film.actor_id')
->select('films.*', 'actors.name as actors_name')
->whereMonth('films.created_at', '=', Carbon::now()->month)
->orderBy('films.created_at', 'desc')
->groupBy('films.name')
->get();
return view('statistics.month')->withCurrent_month_film($current_month_film);
I get 40 films each of it showing just ONE actor, even if I know there are several actors in one film.
If I delete the "->groupBy('films.name')" I get 132 record: one film several times and each time one actor.
How could I get a list of actors inside each film, joinig the two tables? something like:
[
{
film.id: 1,
film.name,
film.actors
{
actor[1].name: Morgan Freeman,
actor.[2].name: Meryl Streep
actor [n].name: ....
}
},
{
film.id: 2,
film.name,
film.actors
{
actor[1].name: Morgan Freeman,
actor.[2].name: Meryl Streep
actor [n].name: ....
}
}
]

Answer 1

If you want to use Eloquent and you have your relation in place then your can do it as:
Film::whereMonth('created_at', Carbon::now()->month)
->orderBy('created_at', 'desc')
->with(['actors' => function($q) {
$q->select('name');
}])
->get()
Docs

Answer 2

As you're using Laravel, you should make the use of Laravel Relationships. You should have a models like this:
class Actor extends Model
{
public function films() {
return $this->belongsToMany(Film::class, 'actor_film');
}
}
class Film extends Model
{
public function actors() {
return $this->belongsToMany(Actor::class, 'actor_film');
}
}
and to get the film with their respective actors, you can use with method like this:
$films = Film::with(['actors' => function($q) {
$q->select('name');
}])
->whereMonth('created_at', Carbon::now()->month)
->orderBy('created_at', 'desc')
->get();
foreach($films as $film) {
$film_name = $film->name;
$actors_arr = $film->actors->toArray();
}
See more about Laravel's Eloquent Relationships & Eager Loading
Hope this helps!

Answer 3

In Controller
$current_month_film = Film::select('*')->with(['actor_film','actors'])
->whereMonth('films.created_at', '=', Carbon::now()->month)
->orderBy('films.created_at', 'desc')
->groupBy('films.name')
->get();
In App\Model\Film Model
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Film extends Model
{
//
protected $primaryKey = "id"; //primary key
protected $table = 'film';
public function actor_film(){
return $this->belongsTo('App\Model\ActorFilm','film_id','id');
}
public function actors(){
return $this->hasMany('App\Model\Actors','id','actor');
}
}