Converting Values to Collections with Laravel's wrap Method

Converting values to collections becomes seamless with Laravel's Collection::wrap method. This versatile utility ensures you're always working with a collection, regardless of the input type.

Basic Usage

Wrap different types of values into collections:

use Illuminate\Support\Collection;

// Wrap a single value
$collection = Collection::wrap('John Doe');
// Result: ['John Doe']

// Wrap an array
$collection = Collection::wrap(['John Doe']);
// Result: ['John Doe']

// Wrap an existing collection
$collection = Collection::wrap(collect('John Doe'));
// Result: ['John Doe']

Real-World Example

Here's how you might use it in a data processing service:

class DataProcessor
{
    public function processItems($items)
    {
        return Collection::wrap($items)
            ->map(fn($item) => $this->formatItem($item))
            ->filter()
            ->values();
    }
    
    public function addTags($entity, $tags)
    {
        $existingTags = $entity->tags;
        $newTags = Collection::wrap($tags)
            ->unique()
            ->diff($existingTags);
            
        $entity->tags()->attach($newTags);
        
        return $entity;
    }

    public function processSearchResults($results)
    {
        return Collection::wrap($results)
            ->map(fn($result) => [
                'id' => $result->id,
                'title' => $result->title,
                'url' => $result->url
            ])
            ->sortBy('title');
    }
}

// Usage
class SearchController extends Controller
{
    public function search(Request $request, DataProcessor $processor)
    {
        $results = SearchService::find($request->query);
        return $processor->processSearchResults($results);
    }
}

The wrap method ensures consistent collection handling regardless of input type, making your code more reliable and flexible.

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