Get a single database column with Eloquent's value() method

If you want to get a single value from a specific database record, you might be inclined to do this:

$name = User::firstWhere('email', 'test@example.com')?->name;

if ($name !== null) {
   //
}

The code above isn't very efficient. Not only will this Eloquent query select columns you don't need, it also eager loads any relations the model has defined in the $with property.

You can improve this query by using Laravel's built-in value() method:

$name = User::where('email', 'test@example.com')->value('name');

if ($name !== null) {
   //
}

The value() method selects a single column, and only returns the first row. It is the most efficient way to select a single value from your database. The Eloquent query above runs the following SQL query:

select `name` from `users` where `email` = 'test@example.com' limit 1