Laravel Json Response Not working as expected

Question

Unable to get response while response object is empty. Works perfect when the object has data returned.

public function show($id)
{
    $associates = Associate::         


        

Answer 1

I've rewrote the function for your reference.

BTW. If the function return only one record, use singular noun for variable name in general.

public function show($id)
{
    // Use find() instead of find_by_id()
    $associate = Associate::find($id);

    // $associate will be null if not matching any record.
    if (is_null($associate)) {

        // If $associate is null, return error message right away.
        return response()->json([
            'message' => 'No Records Found',
        ], 204);
    }

    // Or return matches data at the end.
    return response()->json([
        'message' => 'success',
        'data' => $associate,
    ], 204);
}