Should I use if-else in using whereIn()

148

April 19, 2018, at 2:30 PM

$search_val is array when it has two or more values. But when $search_val has only one value, $search_val is not array. It will be number.

In this case, should I use if-else?

case1: not use if-else

$query->whereIn('column', $search_val);

case2: if-else

if (is_array($search_val)) {
  $query->whereIn('column', $search_val);
} else {
  $query->where('column', $search_val);
}

Answer 1

I think the question has some interesting aspects that need to be answered in order to form a proper answer.

Can whereIn function take a scalar (i.e. non-array) value?

From Laravel's code here, it doesn't handle scalar values. So this means we have to supply an array - and therefore means that your Case 1 above will not work.

Can if/else statements be used to determine where to use whereIn or where?

Of course! But eventually the length of your function (in terms of number of lines) grows when the actual usefulness of the function doesn't increase one bit.

You could do it in one line:

$query->whereIn('column', is_array($search_val) ? $search_val : [$search_val]);

Which makes things slightly neater. But my guess is that eventually you might end up (perhaps elsewhere) with such checks more often than you'd like. In fact, that could be considered a code smell.

Fix the source of the problem

My suggestion would be to fix the source of the problem - the function or piece of code that returns either an array or a scalar value. Make it always return an array. If it's only a single value, make it convert that into a one-element array.

Answer 2

how about this?

$query->whereIn('column', is_array($search_val) ? $search_val : [$search_val]);