laravel - ErrorException Array to string conversion - mysql

Question

I'm trying to figure out how I can get the query result like $residence into the data array. because whem im doing this is gives me the error Array to string conversion. Is there any possible way to convert the query result to a normal string?
/**
* Store a newly created resource in storage.
*
* #param \Illuminate\Http\Request $request
* #return \Illuminate\Http\Response
*/
public function insert(Request $request)
{
$id = auth()->user()->id;
$title = $request->input('title');
$clientid = $request->input('client');
$startdate = $request->input('startdate');
$enddate = $request->input('enddate');
$starttime = $request->input('starttime');
$endtime = $request->input('endtime');
$description = $request->input('description');
$firstname = DB::select('select firstname from clients where id='.$clientid);
$lastname = DB::select('select lastname from clients where id='.$clientid);
$housing = DB::select('select housing from clients where id='.$clientid);
$housenr = DB::select('select housenr from clients where id='.$clientid);
$residence = DB::select('select residence from clients where id='.$clientid);
$residencestring = json_encode($residence);
$data=array(
"uuid"=>$id,
"title"=>$title,
"residence"=>$residencestring,
"startdate"=>$startdate,
"enddate"=>$enddate,
"starttime"=>$starttime,
"endtime"=>$endtime,
"description"=>$description,
"firstname"=>$firstname,
"lastname"=>$lastname,
"housing"=>$housing,
"housenr"=>$housenr
);
//dd($data);
DB::table('tasks')->insert($data);
return redirect('/todo');
}

Answer 1

Notice how you are doing one query for each field? Also, you are getting an array on each query, since the DB::select returns an array with one row, not the row directly as you think.
I would use Query Builder for this for a more elegant solution:
$client = DB::table('clients')->where('id', $clientid)->first();
With this, you have an object named $client that has all the fields from that row.
Then, you can just update the row as follows:
$data = [
'lastname' => $client->lastname,
'firstname' => $client->firstname
];
You could even make it more "Laravel" by using Models.
App/Models/Client.php
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Client extends Model {
protected $guarded = ['id'];
}
Then your code would look something like this:
<?php
use App\Models\Client;
public function insert(Request $request)
{
....
$client = Client::findOrFail($clientid);
$data = [
'lastname' => $client->lastname,
'firstname' => $client->firstname
];
....
}
The findOrFail function gives you the first register it finds on the table based, equivalent to a "where id=$clientid"
You could go even further and insert using Eloquent as well, as so:
$task = new Task;
$task->lastname = $client->lastname;
$task->firstname = $client->firstname;
$task->save();
or:
$task = Task::insert($data);
where Task is a Model as described previously.

Answer 2

So big thanks to #JoeGalind1! The solution was pretty simple, I had to use the build-in query builder. Instead of using an oldschool query.
This is the solution that worked for me!
$client = DB::table('clients')->select('*')->where('id', $clientid)->first();
once you made this query you can easily call it like this:
$data=array(
"residence"=>$client->residence,
);
Now there are no problems with string conversion and arrays when you need to insert afterwards.