[10.x] Illegal operator and value combination whereRelation with three parameters (where the value is <)

[siarheipashkevich]

Laravel Version

10.48.7

PHP Version

8.3.3

Database Driver & Version

MySQL 8.0.32

Description

I'm getting an error (Illegal operator and value combination) when use whereRelation with three parameters.

The interesting thing here is the $barcode variable contains the < character as value for searching.

But by the documentation if we are omitting the operator then the = will be used by default.

Steps To Reproduce

Call the method whereRelation with three parameters where value is <.

Product::query()->whereRelation('ingredients', 'barcode', '<')->get();

[driesvints]

I think you forgot to provide the value for the fourth parameter? https://laravel.com/docs/11.x/eloquent-relationships#inline-relationship-existence-queries

[siarheipashkevich]

But above we have the example where we may omit the operator.

[driesvints]

That's a boolean check, not a greater than comparison.

[siarheipashkevich]

@driesvints do you mean that the three parameters can be used only with boolean values? It's very strange!

What about this?

Product::query()->where('barcode', '<')->get();

[driesvints]

You're not comparing anything against. To what is it lower than? Can you please try passing the value you want to compare to?

[siarheipashkevich]

@driesvints my search value is < as I described above.

< - is not the operator it's the value by which I want to find the product.

select * from products where barcode = '<';

Do you understand me?

[driesvints]

Ah I finally see what you mean. Yeah unfortunately you'll have to try something like this:

Product::query()->whereRelation('ingredients', 'barcode', '=', '<')->get();

Does that work?

[siarheipashkevich]

Yes I already fixed by this way, but it's not obvious. Maybe we need add some note to the documentation about this?

Do you think it's a problem or not?

[driesvints]

I personally think it's pretty obvious, sorry. But you can always attempt to PR the docs. Thanks.

[siarheipashkevich]

@driesvints thanks for you response.