[12.x] force Eloquent\Collection::partition to return a base Collection

[browner12]

the way partition currently works is it returns an Eloquent\Collection of Eloquent\Collections, which is technically not allowed by the generic type hints defined by the class, and also doesn't really make any logical sense for how someone would want to use this.

It also causes issues in the IDE because based on the type hints it assumes ALL values of an Eloquent\Collection are of type Eloquent\Model, which is not the case for the partition method.

what we really want is a Support\Collection of Eloquent\Collections. we can accomplish this by first calling the parent::partition method to get our (illegal) result of Eloquent\Collection<int, Eloquent\Collection>, and then converting it to a base collection to end up with the desired Support\Collection<int, Eloquent\Collection>.

//get users
$users = User::all();

//partition by age
$partition = $users->partition(fn ($user) => $user->age > 18);

//before change
dump($partition::class);    // Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection
dump($partition[0]::class); // Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection
dump($partition[1]::class); // Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection

//after change
dump($partition::class);    // Illuminate\Support\Collection
dump($partition[0]::class); // Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection
dump($partition[1]::class); // Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection

someone please double check my generic return type docblock. I'm relatively new to them, but I think this should be correct and fix the issues.

#53298 #53283

[fragkp]

and also doesn't really make any logical sense for how someone would want to use this

I'm not sure about that. See this example:

[$adults, $kids] = User::all()->partition(fn ($user) => $user->age > 18);

$adults->update(...);
$kids->delete();

This will only work when the underlying collection is a EloquentCollection.

[browner12]

correct, and that's how this change works. because you're destructuring you're not assigning the result of the partition method, you're defining based on the 0 and 1 keys of the return value. so both $adults and $kids are still both Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection, which is what we want, and allow you to call your update() and delete() methods.

[fragkp]

@browner12 Ah, your right! Good change then!