Last Updated: February 25, 2016

Laravel parent/child relationship

Create a parent/child relationship within a model, based on a parent_id in the databast table

id name parent_id
1 Group 1 NULL
2 Group 2 1

<?php // model

class Group extends Eloquent {

 public function parent()
 {
 return $this->belongsTo('group', 'parent_id');
 }

 public function children()
 {
 return $this->hasMany('group', 'parent_id');
 }
}

// Controller
$group = $this->group->with('children', 'parent')->find(1);
// Outputs:
/*
array (size=8)
 'id' => int 1
 'name' => string 'Group 1' (length=7)
 'parent_id' => null
 'children' => 
 array (size=1)
 0 => 
 array (size=5)
 'id' => int 2
 'name' => string 'Group 2' (length=7)
 'parent_id' => int 1
 'parent' => null
*/