如何根据值的第一个字符选择记录？ - Laravel

Question

I have a form that POSTS a postal code value (A1A1A1). In my model I have a col of alpha chars that relate to the province that has postal codes that begin with that letter;

letter  |  province
-------------------
A       |  NLFD
B       |  NS
C       |  PEI
...

I am trying to get the record where the first char of my request (A1A1A1 - so 'A' in that case) equals the 'letter' value.

Is there a way to use LIKE and be specific about which char in the value? Or do I need something else?

Thanks!

Answer 1

One solution could be that you get the first character of the postal code from the request and get the corresponding record from your database.

$pcode = $request->get('postalcode');  
$firstChar = substr($pcode,0,1);
and then  
Model::whereLetter($firstChar)->firstOrFail();  

If you use this at multiple places then you may also consider declaring a global query scope in your model itself.