eloquent-best-practices

Fix N+1 queries in Laravel by eager loading relationships with the with() method, such as Post::with('user')->get(). You can also call Model::preventLazyLoading() in your AppServiceProvider during development to detect lazy loading early.

Optimize large dataset queries by using chunk() to process records in batches or lazy() to iterate one record at a time. Also select only needed columns and perform updates directly at the database level instead of loading models into memory.

The $fillable property whitelists attributes allowed for mass assignment, while $guarded blacklists attributes that cannot be mass-assigned. Never set $guarded to an empty array, as it removes all mass assignment protection.

Yes, Eloquent supports efficient relationship counting via withCount('comments'), which adds a comments_count attribute using a single subquery. This avoids running a separate count query for each model in a loop.

Use query scopes to encapsulate reusable query logic like published() or popular() filters directly on the model. Scopes keep controllers clean and make common query constraints chainable and consistent across the application.