laravel query building with a lot of joins - mysql

Question

my sql query is
$q = "SELECT
file,
roleId,
page,
type,
userType,
COUNT(DISTINCT($a)) as 'a',
COUNT(DISTINCT($b)) as 'b'
FROM table_name
WHERE
course IN ($type)
AND date BETWEEN '$startDate' AND '$endDate'
AND (course_1 is NULL OR course_1 NOT IN ('ABCD'))
AND deleted IS NULL
AND type LIKE '%Professor%'
AND action = 'submit'
GROUP BY file, roleId";
I want to convert that query into laravel query builder like
$orders = DB::table('table_name')
->select('file', 'roleId', 'page', 'type', userType DB::raw('COUNT(DISTINCT(($a)) as 'a'))
->groupBy('file', 'roleId')
->get();
Do understand how to add the other COUNT into it and how and where to chain the ->where() ?

Answer 1

<?php
$orders = DB::table('table_name')
->whereIn('course', $courseTypes)
->whereBetween('date', [$startDate, $endDate])
->where(function($q){
return $q->whereNull('course_1')
->orWhereNotIn('course_1', $courseArrayToFilter);
})
->whereNull('deleted')
->where('type', 'like', '%Professor%')
->where('action', 'submit')
->groupBy('file', 'roleId')
->select(
'file',
'roleId',
'page',
'type',
'userType',
\DB::raw("COUNT(DISTINCT($a)) as a"),
\DB::raw("COUNT(DISTINCT($b) as b")
)
->get();

Answer 2

Maybe in a cleanest way doing this:
Use the Model instance in inspite of invoke the DB facade
Use whereRaw to pass complex or pure SQL queries
Use selectRaw() to process pure SQL queries for instance functions like COUNT
Use Multiple WHERE to emulate AND operator
Use whereIn to filter ranges of data
You need to GROUP BY all columns in your SELECT you have an error at this point, I mean your query is wrong
Code
$data = Model::select('file', 'roleId', 'page', 'type', 'userType')
->selectRaw('COUNT(DISTINCT($a)) as a')
->selectRaw('COUNT(DISTINCT($b)) as b')
->whereRaw('type IN $type')
->whereIn('date', [$startDate, $endDate])
->whereRaw("course_1 IS NULL OR course_1 NOT IN('ABCD')")
->whereNull('deleted')
->where('type', 'LIKE', "%".'Professor'."%")
->where('action', '=', 'submit')
->groupBy('file', 'roleId', 'page', 'type', 'userType')
->get();