Description:

I’m encountering a discrepancy between two methods for counting records in Laravel, and I’m trying to understand why the results are different despite the logic being similar.

Context:

I have a Plateno model and I need to count records based on their status and is_active state. I’ve tried two approaches:

Using selectRaw with a single SQL query:

$platesCount = Plateno::where('member_id', $request->member_id)
    ->selectRaw("
    COUNT(CASE WHEN status = 'approved' AND is_active = true THEN 1 END) AS active,
    COUNT(CASE WHEN status = 'approved' AND is_active = false THEN 1 END) AS inactive,
    COUNT(CASE WHEN status = 'pending' THEN 1 END) AS pending,
    COUNT(CASE WHEN status = 'declined' THEN 1 END) AS declined
    ")->first();

Using get() and PHP collection methods:

$plate = Plateno::where('member_id', $request->member_id)->get();
$activeCount = $plate->where('status', 'approved')->where('is_active', true)->count();
$inactiveCount = $plate->where('status', 'approved')->where('is_active', false)->count();
$pendingCount = $plate->where('status', 'pending')->count();
$declinedCount = $plate->where('status', 'declined')->count();
$platesCount = [
    'active' => $activeCount,
    'inactive' => $inactiveCount,
    'pending' => $pendingCount,
    'declined' => $declinedCount,
];

Problem:

The counts returned by the selectRaw method and the PHP collection method are different. Here are some specifics:

selectRaw method: The counts are generally correct and as expected based on the data in the database.
Collection method: The counts sometimes differ, which I suspect could be due to discrepancies in data between the time it’s fetched and counted, or due to some other issue.
Questions:

• Why might the results differ between these two methods?
• Could data changes or other factors affect the count when using PHP collections?
• Which method would be more reliable for accurate counts, especially for large datasets?
  Any insights into this discrepancy would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I used a single SQL query with selectRaw to perform the counts directly in the database. This method calculates the counts of different statuses in one go and returns the results efficiently.
I fetched all relevant records into a collection using get() and then performed the counts using Laravel’s collection methods.
I expected both methods to yield the same counts for each status and state. Specifically, I anticipated that the counts from selectRaw and the PHP collection methods would match, providing consistent results for the number of active, inactive, pending, and declined plates. However, the results differ between the two methods, leading to discrepancies that I am trying to understand.