Joins in Model or Controller?

DB::table('users') ->join('contacts', 'users.id', '=', 'contacts.user_id') ->join('orders', 'users.id', '=', 'orders.user_id') ->select('users.id', 'contacts.phone', 'orders.price') ->get();

You can use Eloquent ORM and specify relationships between your models.

Then your code will transform into something like this:

//gets all users and their associated contacts and orders
$users = User::with('contacts', 'orders')->get(); //returns a Collection object

//same for a single user
$user = User::with('contacts', 'orders')->find($user_id); 
echo "User's phone: ".$user->contacts->first()->phone;
echo "User has made ".count($user->orders)." orders ";

To make this work you define relationship in your models. Say, User class will have these methods added:

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class User extends Model {
  function contacts() {
    return $this->hasMany('App\Contact');
  }

  function orders() {
    return $this->hasMany('App\Order');
  }
}

And you need respective relationship in your App\Order and App\Contact models:

class Order extends Model {
  function user() {
    return $this->belongsTo('App\User');
  }
}
class Contact extends Model {
  function user() {
    return $this->belongsTo('App\User');
  }
}

Maybe watch Eloquent 101 and Eloquent Relationship to get a basic understanding of the topic.

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