Introduction
Laravel makes interacting with databases extremely simple across a variety of database backends using either raw SQL, the fluent query builder, and the Eloquent ORM. Currently, Laravel supports four databases:
-MySQL
-PostgreSQL
-SQLite
-SQL Server
Configuration
The database configuration for your application is located at config/database.php. In this file you may define all of your database connections, as well as specify which connection should be used by default. Examples for most of the supported database systems are provided in this file.
By default, Laravel’s sample environment configuration is ready to use with Laravel Homestead, which is a convenient virtual machine for doing Laravel development on your local machine. Of course, you are free to modify this configuration as needed for your local database.
'connections' => [
'sqlite' => [
'driver' => 'sqlite',
'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', database_path('database.sqlite')),
'prefix' => '',
],
'mysql' => [
'driver' => 'mysql',
'host' => env('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
'port' => env('DB_PORT', '3306'),
'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'forge'),
'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'forge'),
'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', ''),
'unix_socket' => env('DB_SOCKET', ''),
'charset' => 'utf8mb4',
'collation' => 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci',
'prefix' => '',
'strict' => true,
'engine' => null,
],
'pgsql' => [
'driver' => 'pgsql',
'host' => env('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
'port' => env('DB_PORT', '5432'),
'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'forge'),
'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'forge'),
'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', ''),
'charset' => 'utf8',
'prefix' => '',
'schema' => 'public',
'sslmode' => 'prefer',
],
'sqlsrv' => [
'driver' => 'sqlsrv',
'host' => env('DB_HOST', 'localhost'),
'port' => env('DB_PORT', '1433'),
'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'forge'),
'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'forge'),
'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', ''),
'charset' => 'utf8',
'prefix' => '',
],
],
SQLite Configuration
After creating a new SQLite database using a command such as touch database/database.sqlite, you can easily configure your environment variables to point to this newly created database by using the database’s absolute path:
DB_CONNECTION=sqlite
DB_DATABASE=/absolute/path/to/database.sqlite
'sqlite' => [
// ...
'foreign_key_constraints' => true,
],
Read & Write Connections
Sometimes you may wish to use one database connection for SELECT statements, and another for INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements. Laravel makes this a breeze, and the proper connections will always be used whether you are using raw queries, the query builder, or the Eloquent ORM.
To see how read / write connections should be configured, let’s look at this example:
'mysql' => [
'read' => [
'host' => ['192.168.1.1'],
],
'write' => [
'host' => ['196.168.1.2'],
],
'sticky' => true,
'driver' => 'mysql',
'database' => 'database',
'username' => 'root',
'password' => '',
'charset' => 'utf8mb4',
'collation' => 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci',
'prefix' => '',
],
Note that three keys have been added to the configuration array: read, write and sticky. The read and write keys have array values containing a single key: host. The rest of the database options for the read and write connections will be merged from the main mysql array.
You only need to place items in the read and write arrays if you wish to override the values from the main array. So, in this case, 192.168.1.1 will be used as the host for the “read” connection, while 192.168.1.2 will be used for the “write” connection. The database credentials, prefix, character set, and all other options in the main mysql array will be shared across both connections.
The sticky Option
The sticky option is an optional value that can be used to allow the immediate reading of records that have been written to the database during the current request cycle. If the sticky option is enabled and a “write” operation has been performed against the database during the current request cycle, any further “read” operations will use the “write” connection. This ensures that any data written during the request cycle can be immediately read back from the database during that same request. It is up to you to decide if this is the desired behavior for your application.
Using Multiple Database Connections
When using multiple connections, you may access each connection via the connection method on the DB facade. The name passed to the connection method should correspond to one of the connections listed in your config/database.php configuration file:
$users = DB::connection('foo')->select(...);
$pdo = DB::connection()->getPdo();
Running Raw SQL Queries
Once you have configured your database connection, you may run queries using the DB facade. The DB facade provides methods for each type of query: select, update, insert, delete, and statement.
Running A Select Query
To run a basic query, you may use the select method on the DB facade:
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
class UserController extends Controller
{
/**
* Show a list of all of the application's users.
*
* @return Response
*/
public function index()
{
$users = DB::select('select * from users where active = ?', [1]);
return view('user.index', ['users' => $users]);
}
}
Listening For Query Events
If you would like to receive each SQL query executed by your application, you may use the listen method. This method is useful for logging queries or debugging. You may register your query listener in a service provider:
namespace App\Providers;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;
use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;
class AppServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
/**
* Bootstrap any application services.
*
* @return void
*/
public function boot()
{
DB::listen(function ($query) {
// $query->sql
// $query->bindings
// $query->time
});
}
/**
* Register the service provider.
*
* @return void
*/
public function register()
{
//
}
}
You may use the transaction method on the DB facade to run a set of operations within a database transaction. If an exception is thrown within the transaction Closure, the transaction will automatically be rolled back. If the Closure executes successfully, the transaction will automatically be committed. You don’t need to worry about manually rolling back or committing while using the transaction method:
