Raw Queries

Contents

• The Basics
• Other Query Methods
• PDO Connections

The Basics

The query method is used to execute arbitrary, raw SQL against your database connection.

Selecting records from the database:

$users = DB::query('select * from users');

Selecting records from the database using bindings:

$users = DB::query('select * from users where name = ?', array('test'));

Inserting a record into the database

$success = DB::query('insert into users values (?, ?)', $bindings);

Updating table records and getting the number of affected rows:

$affected = DB::query('update users set name = ?', $bindings);

Deleting from a table and getting the number of affected rows:

$affected = DB::query('delete from users where id = ?', array(1));

Other Query Methods

Laravel provides a few other methods to make querying your database simple. Here's an overview:

Running a SELECT query and returning the first result:

$user = DB::first('select * from users where id = 1');

Running a SELECT query and getting the value of a single column:

$email = DB::only('select email from users where id = 1');

PDO Connections

Sometimes you may wish to access the raw PDO connection behind the Laravel Connection object.

Get the raw PDO connection for a database:

$pdo = DB::connection('sqlite')->pdo;

Note: If no connection name is specified, the default connection will be returned.