Eloquent - Updating all models in a collection

Question

I want to set a certain attribute in all the models of a collection.

in plain SQL:

UPDATE table SET att = \'foo\' WHERE id in (1,2,3)

t

Answer 1

The best solution in one single query is still:

MyModel::whereIn('id',[1,2,3])->update(['att'=>'foo']);

If you already have a collection of models and you want to do a direct update you can use modelKeys() method. Consider that after making this update your $models collection remains outdated and you may need to refresh it:

MyModel::whereIn('id', $models->modelKeys())->update(['att'=>'foo']);
$models = MyModel::findMany($models->modelKeys());

The next example I will not recommend because for every item of your $models collection a new extra query is performed:

$models->each(function ($item) {
    $item->update(['att'=>'foo']);
});

or simpler, from Laravel 5.4 you can do $models->each->update(['att'=>'foo']);

However, the last example (and only the last) is good when you want to trigger some model events like saving, saved, updating, updated. Other presented solutions are touching direct the database but models are not waked up.