Array & JSON Casting in Laravel
The array cast type is particularly useful when working with columns that are stored as serialized JSON. For example, if your database has a JSON or TEXT field type that contains serialized JSON, adding the array cast to that attribute will automatically deserialize the attribute to a PHP array when you access it on your Eloquent model:
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class User extends Model
{
/**
* The attributes that should be cast.
*
* @var array
*/
protected $casts = [
'options' => 'array',
];
}
Once the cast is defined, you may access the options attribute and it will automatically be deserialized from JSON into a PHP array. When you set the value of the options attribute, the given array will automatically be serialized back into JSON for storage:
$user = App\Models\User::find(1);
$options = $user->options;
$options['key'] = 'value';
$user->options = $options;
$user->save();
To update a single field of a JSON attribute with a more terse syntax, you may use the -> operator:
$user = App\Models\User::find(1);
$user->update(['options->key' => 'value']);
$user->update(['options->name' => 'test']);
