laravel eloquent subquery same table different columns - mysql

Question

i am trying to re-construct a working mysql query (or something better with the same result) in laravel eloquent. My db looks like this:
I have a words table with columns id and name.
I have a pivot table called synonyms with columns id, word_id and synonym_id.
The synonyms table links words together that are synonyms. It links for example a bike and cycle together. But also bike to cycle etc.
I did manage to build this query in my phpstorm editor and it works:
select * from words
where id in (
select synonym_id from synonyms
where word_id in (select id from words where name = 'bike')
)
or id in (
select word_id from synonyms
where synonym_id in (select id from words where name = 'bike')
)
It returns a result set containing cycle, tandem, velocipede etc.
I did create a "word" eloquent model that has these methods:
/**
* Synonyms for this word
*
* #return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsToMany
*/
public function synonyms() {
return $this->belongsToMany(Word::class, 'synonyms', 'synonym_id', 'word_id');
}
/**
* Words that have this word as their synonym
*
* #return \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsToMany
*/
public function isSynonymFor() {
return $this->belongsToMany(Word::class, 'synonyms', 'word_id', 'synonym_id');
}
And now I am trying to rebuild that query in eloquent like this:
$word = 'bike'; //Just for debugging purposes I hardcoded it.
$query = Word::whereHas('isSynonymFor', function(Builder $query) use($word) {
$query->where('name', '=', $word);
})->orWhereHas('synonyms', function(Builder $query) use($word) {
$query->where('name', '=', $word);
})
return $query->get();
This does not work like I want it too. It just returns a collection with "bike" in it and not the rest.
How can I fix it?

Answer 1

If you only want to reproduce that exact query (no eloquent relationships used), you should be able to do it just fine with whereIn(column, Closure) for the subqueries.
$query = DB::table('words')
->whereIn('id', function ($sub) {
$sub->select('synonym_id')
->from('synonyms')
->whereIn('word_id', function ($sub2) {
$sub2->select('id')
->from('words')
->where('name', 'bike');
});
})
->orWhereIn('id', function ($sub) {
$sub->select('word_id')
->from('synonyms')
->whereIn('synonym_id', function ($sub2) {
$sub2->select('id')
->from('words')
->where('name', 'bike');
});
})
// ->toSql();
->get();