Fluent Array Handling in Laravel: The fluent() Helper

Working with nested arrays in Laravel just got smoother with the introduction of the fluent() helper function, providing a more intuitive way to access and manipulate multi-dimensional data.

Basic Usage

Here's how to work with multi-dimensional arrays using the fluent helper:

$data = [
    'user' => [
        'name' => 'Philo',
        'address' => [
            'city' => 'Amsterdam',
            'country' => 'Netherlands',
        ]
    ],
    'posts' => [
        ['title' => 'Post 1'],
        ['title' => 'Post 2']
    ]
];

// Access nested data
fluent($data)->user;
fluent($data)->get('user.name');

// Chain with collections
fluent($data)->collect('posts')->pluck('title');

// JSON conversion
fluent($data)->scope('user.address')->toJson();

Real-World Example

Here's a practical implementation for a user profile system:

class ProfileController extends Controller
{
    public function show(User $user)
    {
        $profileData = [
            'user' => [
                'info' => [
                    'name' => $user->name,
                    'email' => $user->email,
                    'joined' => $user->created_at
                ],
                'preferences' => [
                    'notifications' => $user->notification_preferences,
                    'theme' => $user->theme_settings
                ]
            ],
            'stats' => [
                'posts' => $user->posts->count(),
                'comments' => $user->comments->count(),
                'likes' => $user->likes->count()
            ]
        ];

        $profile = fluent($profileData);

        return response()->json([
            'name' => $profile->get('user.info.name'),
            'email' => $profile->get('user.info.email'),
            'theme' => $profile->get('user.preferences.theme'),
            'engagement' => $profile->scope('stats')->toArray(),
            'notifications' => $profile
                ->collect('user.preferences.notifications')
                ->filter(fn($enabled) => $enabled)
                ->keys()
        ]);
    }
}

The fluent helper makes complex array operations more readable and maintainable.

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