Filtering Eloquent Collection - laravel

Question

Trying to filter a collection object down based upon any combination of multiple values. This is as far as I've got. Not happening. Any clues for me?
public function search()
{
$posts = Posting::all();
$type_id = Input::get('type_id');
$country_id = Input::get('country_id');
$province_id = Input::get('province_id');
$posts = $posts->filter(function($post)
{
if( !empty($type_id) && $type_id>0 )
{
return $post->where('type_id','=',$type_id);
}
})->values();
$posts = $posts->filter(function($post)
{
if( !empty($country_id) && $country_id>0 )
{
return $post->where('country_id','=',$country_id);
}
})->values();
$posts = $posts->filter(function($post)
{
if( !empty($province_id) && $province_id>0 )
{
return $post->where('province_id','=',$province_id);
}
})->values();
return $posts;
}
Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

First off, you should really do a validation for the id being larger than 0, if they were provided. You shouldn't be manually checking that out.
But anyhow, why are you using filter, when you can just directly use Eloquent (I omitted the check for id being bigger than 0):
$type_id = Input::get('type_id');
$country_id = Input::get('country_id');
$province_id = Input::get('province_id');
$query = Posting::query();
if ( ! empty($type_id)) $query->whereTypeId($type_id);
if ( ! empty($country_id)) $query->whereCountryId($country_id);
if ( ! empty($province_id)) $query->whereProvinceId($province_id);
return $query->get();

Answer 2

First off, you need to return something that makes sense from the closure in your filter:
$posts = $posts->filter(function($post)
{
if( !empty($type_id) && $type_id>0 )
{
return $post->where('type_id','=',$type_id);
}
})
Above returns Eloquent\Builder object, which is evaluated to true, so.. it really doesn't make sense.
This is what you need:
$posts = $posts->filter(function($post)
{
if( !empty($type_id) && $type_id>0 )
{
return $post->type_id == $type_id; // bool
}
})
With such code, you will filter the collection. $posts now will hold only those items, that match the statement in that closure.