How do I modify/enrich an Eloquent collection? - arrays

Question

I'm using eloquent relationships.
When I call $carcollection = $owner->cars()->get(); I have a collection to work with. So let's say that I have, for this particular owner, retrieved three cars. The collection is a collection of three arrays. Each array describes the car.
This is all working fine.
Now I want to add more attributes to the array, without breaking the collection. The additional attributes will come from a different source, in fact another model (e.g. servicehistory)
Either I retrieve the other model and then try merge() them, or I try manipulate the arrays within the collection without breaking the collection.
All this activity is taking place in my controller.
Is one way better than another, or is there a totally different approach I could use.... perhaps this logic belongs in the model themselves? Looking for some pointers :).

Answer 1

Just to be specific, if you do $owner->cars()->get(); you have a collection of Car Models, not array.
That have been said, you can totally load another relation on you Car model, using
$carcollection = $owner->cars()->with('servicehistory')->get();
$carcollection->first()->servicehistory;

Answer 2

You can try to use the transform method of the collection.
$cars = $owner->cars()->get();
$allServiceHistory = $this->getAllService();
$cars->transform(function($car) use($allServiceHistory) {
// you can do whatever you want here
$car->someAttribute = $allServiceHistory->find(...):
// or
$car->otherAttribute = ServiceHistoryModel::whereCarId($car->getKey())->get();
});
And this way, the $cars collection will be mutated to whatever you want.
Of course, it would be wiser to lazy load the data instead of falling into an n+1 queries situation.