Doctrine 2 ArrayCollection filter method

Question

Can I filter out results from an arrayCollection in Doctrine 2 while using lazy loading? For example,

// users = ArrayCollection with User entities containing an "active" property
$customer->users->filter('active' => TRUE)->first()

It's unclear for me how the filter method is actually used.

Moulden

But still method load to many data, for example for count, load all matching data. – Cabe

Answer 1

The Boris Guéry answer's at this post, may help you: Doctrine 2, query inside entities

$idsToFilter = array(1,2,3,4);

$member->getComments()->filter(
    function($entry) use ($idsToFilter) {
       return in_array($entry->getId(), $idsToFilter);
    }
); 

Baez

The only problem using the filter method is that you have to fetch all the data before you can filter it out, do you know if there is a way of doing this without fetching everything? – Moulden

Hi - I'm trying the above but getting a syntax error, can you update your answer? – Musician

@Musician I updated it for you. Missing () around $idsToFilter. – Insomnolence

Something that bit me is filter returns a Collection. I presumed it returned an array and kept doing $filtered[0], and got null. When I changed the code to $filtered->first() I got the data I expected. – Farfetched

@ryan's answer about Criteria should now (2014) be the accepted answer as it can filter collections at the SQL level. – Banky

@jacobwalker0814 although you are right, this is an old question and the answer back then was the correct one (though now it's obsolete). – Revenue

@Revenue oh, yeah for sure. My comment meant no disrespect. Instead I meant to notify readers of the newer method that is now available. – Banky

Answer 2

Doctrine now has Criteria which offers a single API for filtering collections with SQL and in PHP, depending on the context.

https://www.doctrine-project.org/projects/doctrine-orm/en/latest/reference/working-with-associations.html#filtering-collections

Update

This will achieve the result in the accepted answer, without getting everything from the database.

use Doctrine\Common\Collections\Criteria;

/**
 * @ORM\Entity
 */
class Member {
  // ...
  public function getCommentsFiltered($ids) {
    $criteria = Criteria::create()->where(Criteria::expr()->in("id", $ids));

    return $this->getComments()->matching($criteria); 
  }
}

Slowly

Thanks for clearing out this will actually alter the sql query, rather than selecting everything from the database and then applying a filter via a cycle! – Revenue

#35359097 please, take a look here :) – Diegodiehard

There appears to be an issue when using indexBy="xxx" on a collection and calling matching on it, where the indexes become discarded. github.com/doctrine/doctrine2/issues/4693 – Piggery

Please Note: Criteria works as assumed (SQL instead of filtering via PHP) only if relation declared with fetch="EXTRA_LAZY". fetch="EXTRA_LAZY" doesn't work on every relation yet... docs.doctrine-project.org/projects/doctrine-orm/en/latest/… – Extinction

Answer 3

Your use case would be :

    $ArrayCollectionOfActiveUsers = $customer->users->filter(function($user) {
                        return $user->getActive() === TRUE;
                    });

if you add ->first() you'll get only the first entry returned, which is not what you want.

@ Sjwdavies You need to put () around the variable you pass to USE. You can also shorten as in_array return's a boolean already:

    $member->getComments()->filter( function($entry) use ($idsToFilter) {
        return in_array($entry->getId(), $idsToFilter);
    });

Gossett

Answer 4

The following code will resolve your need:

//$customer = ArrayCollection of customers;
$customer->getUsers()->filter( 
    function (User $user) {
        return $user->getActive() === true;
    }
);

Coquelicot

Answer 5

The Collection#filter method really does eager load all members. Filtering at the SQL level will be added in doctrine 2.3.

Electrocardiograph

is this true now that 2.3 is out? I haven't found it in the docs. Can we now do stuff like filter and other things, expecting that the collection will apply the filtering to the query and defer the query? – Profuse

@Pinetree At least they say so: docs.doctrine-project.org/en/latest/reference/… – Koslo