Laravel 4 - Get Array of Attributes from Collection

Question

I have a collection of objects. Let\'s say the objects are tags:

$tags = Tag::all();

I want to retrieve a certain attribute for each tag, say i

Answer 1

Here are a few snippets from my own experimentation on the matter this morning. I only wish (and maybe someone else knows the solution) that the Collection had a $collection->distinct() method, so I could easily generate a list of column values based on an already filtered collection.

Thoughts?

I hope these snippets help clarify some alternative options for generating a list of unique values from a Table, Collection, and Eloquent Model.

Using a Collection (Happy)

/**
 * Method A
 *     Store Collection to reduce queries when building multiple lists
 */
$people = Person::get();
$cities = array_unique( $people->lists('city') );
$states = array_unique( $people->lists('state') );
// etc...

Using an Eloquent Model (Happier)

/**
 * Method B
 *     Utilize the Eloquent model's methods
 *     One query per list
 */
// This will return an array of unique cities present in the list
$cities = Person::distinct()->lists('city');
$states = Person::distinct()->lists('state');

Using an Eloquent Model PLUS Caching (Happiest)

/**
 * Method C
 *     Utilize the Eloquent model's methods PLUS the built in Caching
 *     Queries only run once expiry is reached
 */
$expiry = 60; // One Hour
$cities = Person::remember($expiry)->distinct()->lists('city');
$states = Person::remember($expiry)->distinct()->lists('state');

I would love to hear some alternatives to this if you guys have one!

@ErikOnTheWeb