Laravel belongsToMany to return specific columns only
laravel, model, php, pivot-table
Solution
You can use belongsToMany with select operation using laravel relationship.
public function photos()
{
return $this->belongsToMany('Photo')->select(array('name', 'date'));
}
Problem
So I have a many to many relationship between Users and Photos via the pivot table `user_photo`. I use `belongsToMany('Photo')` in my User model. However the trouble here is that I have a dozen columns in my Photo table most I don't need (especially during a json response). So an example would be: ``` //Grab user #987's photos: User::with('photos')->find(987); //json output: { id: 987, name: "John Appleseed", photos: { id: 5435433, date: ..., name: 'feelsgoodman.jpg', ....// other columns that I don't need } } ``` Is it possible to modify this method such that `Photos` model will only return the accepted columns (say specified by an array `['name', 'date']`)? User.php ``` public function photos() { return $this->belongsToMany('Photo'); } ``` Note: I only want to select specific columns when doing a `User->belongsToMany->Photo` only. When doing something like `Photo::all()`, yes I would want all the columns as normal. EDIT: I've tried Get specific columns using "with()" function in Laravel Eloquent but the columns are still being selected. Also https://github.com/laravel/laravel/issues/2306