Getting specific information in controller?

Question

im having issues with my controller and getting data within it. My issue is that when i get my team like so:

$team = Team::where('join_number', '=', $data['team'])->get();

i cant seem too access it by going

$team->join_request_needed = 'True'

for example? If i just die dump

$team->join_request_needed

i get a 'Property [join_request_needed] does not exist on this collection instance'. How can i access this data? If i die dump $team i get this; so it gets the data?

Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection {#282 ▼
  #items: array:1 [▼
    0 => App\Team {#291 ▼
      #guarded: []
      #connection: "sqlite"
      #table: "teams"
      #primaryKey: "id"
      #keyType: "int"
      +incrementing: true
      #with: []
      #withCount: []
      #perPage: 15
      +exists: true
      +wasRecentlyCreated: false
      #attributes: array:8 [▶]
      #original: array:8 [▼
        "id" => "1"
        "user_id" => "1"
        "name" => "team1"
        "description" => null
        "join_request_needed" => "0"
        "join_number" => "1574832472024"
        "created_at" => "2019-11-27 05:27:52"
        "updated_at" => "2019-11-27 22:46:55"
      ]
      #changes: []
      #casts: []
      #dates: []
      #dateFormat: null
      #appends: []
      #dispatchesEvents: []
      #observables: []
      #relations: []
      #touches: []
      +timestamps: true
      #hidden: []
      #visible: []
      #fillable: []
    }
  ]
}

Here is my entire function (only rough so far since im stuck on getting the data):

public function check() {
    $data = request()->validate([
        'email' => ['required', 'email'],
        'team' => ['required', 'alpha_num', 'exists:teams,join_number']
    ]);

    $team = Team::where('join_number', '=', $data['team'])->get();

    if ($team->join_request_needed = 'True') {
        if (Member::where('email', '=', $data['email'])->count() > 0) {
            $member = Member::where('email', '=', $data['email']);
            if ($member->approved = 'True') {
                // member has been accepted
                return view('portal.members.answer', [
                    'team' => $team
                ]); // questions
            } else {
                // member has not been accepted
                dd('member has not been accepted');
                return view(''); // waiting screen
            }
        } else {
            // create a join request for the member
            $team->member()->create([
                'email' => $data['email']
            ]);
            return view(''); // waiting screen
        }
    } else if(Member::where('email', '=', $data['email'])->count() > 0) {
        // no join request needed, member already exists
        return view('portal.members.answer', [
            'team' => $team
        ]); // questions
    } else {
        // no join request needed, need to create member
        dd($team);
        $team->member()->create([
            'email' => $data['email']
        ]);
        return view('portal.members.answer', [
            'team' => $team
        ]); // questions
    }
}

Answer 1

Since you are getting the collection of Team with join_number = $data['team'] You need to loop first for the $team. But if you only want to have one $team that has a join_number = $data['team'] you should do first() instead of get()

Answer 2

Team is in your case a collection of Teams, therefor you can utilise the querybuilder method first()

$team = Team::where('join_number', '=', $data['team'])->first();

Since the way queries work, calling get on the Query Builder will always return a collection. If you want single objects first() or find() is the options.