php - Laravel Advanced Wheres how to pass variable into function?

Question

Example in doc:

DB::table('users')
        ->whereExists(function($query)
        {
            $query->select(DB::raw(1))
                  ->from('orders')
                  ->whereRaw('orders.user_id = users.id');
        })
        ->get();

But what if I need to use external variable like that:

            ->where('city_id', '=', $this->city->id)
            ->where(function($query)
                {
                    $query->where('name', 'LIKE', '%'.$searchQuery.'%')
                    ->orWhere('address', 'LIKE', '%'.$searchQuery.'%')

                })

For now I created new property and accessed it through $this->, but is there any more convenient way?

Answer 1

You can pass the necessary variables from the parent scope into the closure with the use keyword.

For example:

DB::table('users')->where(function ($query) use ($activated) {
    $query->where('activated', '=', $activated);
})->get();

More on that here.

EDIT (2019 update):

PHP 7.4 (will be released at November 28, 2019) introduces a shorter variation of the anonymous functions called arrow functions which makes this a bit less verbose.

An example using PHP 7.4 which is functionally nearly equivalent (see the 3rd bullet point below):

DB::table('users')->where(fn($query) => $query->where('activated', '=', $activated))->get();

Differences compared to the regular syntax:

• fn keyword instead of function.
• No need to explicitly list all variables which should be captured from the parent scope - this is now done automatically by-value. See the lack of use keyword in the latter example.
• Arrow functions always return a value. This also means that it's impossible to use void return type when declaring them.
• The return keyword must be omitted.
• Arrow functions must have a single expression which is the return statement. Multi-line functions aren't supported at the moment. You can still chain methods though.