Eloquent - Updating all models in a collection

Question

I want to set a certain attribute in all the models of a collection.

in plain SQL:

UPDATE table SET att = \'foo\' WHERE id in (1,2,3)

t

Answer 1

The best solution in one single query is still:

MyModel::whereIn('id',[1,2,3])->update(['att'=>'foo']);

If you already have a collection of models and you want to do a direct update you can use modelKeys() method. Consider that after making this update your $models collection remains outdated and you may need to refresh it:

MyModel::whereIn('id', $models->modelKeys())->update(['att'=>'foo']);
$models = MyModel::findMany($models->modelKeys());

The next example I will not recommend because for every item of your $models collection a new extra query is performed:

$models->each(function ($item) {
    $item->update(['att'=>'foo']);
});

or simpler, from Laravel 5.4 you can do $models->each->update(['att'=>'foo']);

However, the last example (and only the last) is good when you want to trigger some model events like saving, saved, updating, updated. Other presented solutions are touching direct the database but models are not waked up.

Answer 2

You are returning a collection, not keeping the query open to update. Like your example is doing.

$models = MyModel::whereIn('id',[1,2,3]);
$models->update(['att'=>'foo']);

whereIn will query a column in your case id, the second parameter is an array of the ids you want to return, but will not execute the query. The findMany you were using was executing it thus returning a Collection of models.

If you need to get the model to use for something else you can do $collection = $models->get(); and it will return a collection of the models.

If you do not just simply write it on one line like so;

MyModel::whereIn('id',[1,2,3])->update(['att'=>'foo']);

Another option which i do not recommend is using the following;

$models = MyModel::findMany([1,2,3]);

$models->each(function ($item){
    $item->update(['att'=>'foo']);
});

This will loop over all the items in the collection and update them individually. But I recommend the whereIn method.