Pluck together with first using Query builder

Question

If I want to get get name of first user in database using eloquent I can do something like that:

$user =  User::select('name')->first()->pluck('name');
// or $user =  User::first()->pluck('name');

echo $user;

to get only name of this user as string.

However If I try the same using only query builder:

$user =  DB::table('users')->select('name')->first()->pluck('name');

echo $user;

I get exception:

Call to undefined method stdClass::pluck()

But without using first it will work:

$user =  DB::table('users')->select('name')->where('id',1)->pluck('name');

echo $user;

Is it not possible to use pluck with first using query builder or am I doing something wrong?

PS. Of course I know that I can display any property using $user->name without using pluck but I'm just curious why using Eloquent it works and using Query Builder it works only when not having both first and pluck

Answer 1

You don't want to use pluck with first, because it's redundant:

$query->first() // fetch first row
      ->pluck('name'); // fetch first row again and return only name

So use only pluck:

$query->pluck('name');

It does all you need.

---

But there's more.

Under the hood first and pluck run 2 separate queries, so:

$query->where(..)->orderBy(..)->first() // apply where and orderBy
        ->pluck('name'); // no where and orderBy applied here!

So it's not only redundant to use first before pluck, but also it causes unexpected results.

---

You can chain those methods on Eloquent query, since it returns a collection (get) or model (first), but Query\Builder returns just an array (get) or stdObject (first). That's why you couldn't do the same oon the query builder.

Answer 2

In Laravel 5.1+, you can use the value method.

From the docs:

If you don't even need an entire row, you may extract a single value from a record using the value method. This method will return the value of the column directly:

$email = DB::table('users')->where('name', 'John')->value('email');

This is how it works behind the scenes in the Builder class:

/**
 * Get a single column's value from the first result of a query.
 *
 * @param  string  $column
 * @return mixed
 */
public function value($column)
{
    $result = (array) $this->first([$column]);
    return count($result) > 0 ? reset($result) : null;
}

Answer 3

Try this one:

$user =  User::pluck('name')->first();
echo $user;

Answer 4

Current alternative for pluck() is value().

To get first occurence, You can either use

  DB::table('users')->value('name');

or use,

 DB::table('users')->pluck('name')->first();