What is Eloquent and how do you use models?

Question

Accepted Answer

**Eloquent** is Laravel's ORM (Object-Relational Mapper) — it uses the **Active Record** pattern, where each database table has a corresponding **Model** class, and model instances represent rows. It provides an elegant, expressive way to query and manipulate the database without writing SQL.

## Defining a model

```php
<?php
class User extends Model {
    // by convention, the User model maps to the "users" table automatically
    protected $fillable = ['name', 'email'];   // mass-assignable fields (security)
}
// generate with: php artisan make:model User
```

A model extends `Model` and maps to a table by naming convention (`User` → `users`). The `$fillable` list controls which fields can be mass-assigned (a security feature).

## CRUD operations (Active Record)

```php
// CREATE
$user = User::create(['name' => 'Ann', 'email' => 'ann@x.com']);
$user = new User; $user->name = 'Bob'; $user->save();

// READ
User::all();                              // all rows
User::find(1);                            // by primary key
User::where('active', true)->get();        // query with conditions
User::where('email', $email)->first();     // first match

// UPDATE
$user->update(['name' => 'New Name']);
$user->name = 'X'; $user->save();

// DELETE
$user->delete();
User::destroy(1);
```

Eloquent's fluent, chainable API reads almost like English and generates the SQL for you — no raw queries for common operations.

## Querying with the fluent builder

```php
User::where('age', '>', 18)
    ->where('active', true)
    ->orderBy('name')
    ->limit(10)
    ->get();                              // chainable query building

User::where('role', 'admin')->count();
User::where('email', $e)->exists();
```

## Models are more than data

```php
class Post extends Model {
    public function author() {                          // a relationship
        return $this->belongsTo(User::class);
    }
    public function getExcerptAttribute() {              // an accessor (computed attribute)
        return Str::limit($this->body, 100);
    }
}
$post->author;       // the related User
$post->excerpt;       // computed attribute
```

## Why it matters

Eloquent is central to Laravel — it's how applications interact with the database, and its elegant Active Record design is one of the framework's most celebrated features, so mastering it is essential for any Laravel development.

Understanding how to define models (mapping to tables by convention), perform CRUD operations, and query with the fluent, chainable builder is everyday, fundamental knowledge since data access is core to most applications.

Eloquent's expressive, readable API (`User::where(...)->orderBy(...)->get()`) lets you work with the database in clean PHP without writing SQL, dramatically improving productivity and readability.

Models are also more than data containers — they define **relationships** (connecting related tables) and can have **accessors/mutators** (computed attributes) and business logic, making them rich domain objects.

Knowing the `$fillable` mass-assignment protection (a security consideration) is also important.

Since Eloquent is how Laravel applications read and write their data — and it appears throughout virtually every Laravel app — mastering models and Eloquent's query API is foundational, must-know material that underpins effective Laravel development.