LEAST and GREATEST date value from multiple tables, laravel way - mysql

Question

Is there any "Laravel-ish" way to capture the earliest and latest dates from multiple date fields in several laravel tables?
table for model1:
fielda| fieldb| date1
table2 for model2:
fieldc| fieldd| date1| date2
I couldn't find any elegant way to do it. My current approach is something like:
$model1_dates = Model1::select(\DB::raw('MIN(date1) as min_date'), \DB::raw('MAX(date1) as max_date'))->get();
$model2_dates = Model2::select(\DB::raw('MIN(date2) as min_date'), \DB::raw('MAX(date2) as max_date'))->get();
$model2_dates2 = Model2::select(\DB::raw('MIN(date2) as min_date'), \DB::raw('MAX(date1) as max_date'))->get();
afterwards, I will compare the results and get the minimum and maximum of those...
What approaches would be better?

Answer 1

I've used Laravel, but I'm not a fan - So I don't really know "Laravel-ish" or what it is. If you mean "something that looks simple", then it could be
$minDate = collect([
Model1::min('date1'),
Model2::min('date1'),
Model2::min('date2'),
])->min();
$maxDate = collect([
Model1::max('date1'),
Model2::max('date1'),
Model2::max('date2'),
])->max();
That's neat - But that are 6 queries to the DB.
A single raw SQL would be
select min(min_date) as min_date, max(max_date) as max_date
from (
select min(date1) as min_date, max(date1) as max_date from table1
union all
select min(date1) as min_date, max(date1) as max_date from table2
union all
select min(date2) as min_date, max(date2) as max_date from table2
) x
or
select min(min_date) as min_date, max(max_date) as max_date
from (
select min(date1) as min_date, max(date1) as max_date
from table1
union all
select min(least(date1, date2)) as min_date,
max(greatest(date1, date2)) as max_date
from table2
) x
depending on what indexes you have. The first query performs better, when every date column has its own index.

Answer 2

Yes there are functions like max()and min(). Also you can unite two queries with the union() method
Aggregate Methods
Union
And you can also use orderBy with laravel. Works also on dates.
OrderBy
Fastest way:
$minDateModel1 = Model1::min('date1');
$maxDateModel1 = Model1::max('date1');
Or:
$minDateModel1 = Model1::oldest('date1')->first()->pluck('date1');
$maxDateModel1 = Model1::latest('date1')->first()->pluck('date1');
Or:
$minDateModel1 = Model1::max('date1');
//should be the oldest first, newest at last
$minDateModel1 = Model1::orderBy('date1', 'asc')->first()->pluck('date1');
$maxDateModel1 = Model1::orderBy('date1', 'asc')->first()->pluck('date1');
Should do the trick:
$minDateModel1 = Model1::max('date1');
$minDateModel21 = Model2::max('date1');
$minDateModel22 = Model2::max('date2');
$allMinDates = $allMinDates->merge($minDateModel1);
$allMinDates = $allMinDates->merge($minDateModel21);
$allMinDates = $allMinDates->merge($minDateModel22);
$min = $allMinDates->min();