A bug with the refresh method (Model class)?

[djug]

• Laravel Version: 5.7.13
• PHP Version: 7.3.1
• Database Driver & Version: mysql Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.3.12-MariaDB

Description:

in Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Model.php
if we take a look at the fresh method we find this at the beginning:

if (! $this->exists) {
   return;
}

which mean if the model is no longer there we just return (null?).

but the behavior of the refresh method is slightly different:

if (! $this->exists) {
   return $this;
}

in other terms, if we delete the model, and we execute the fresh() method on it, we will get null, but if we execute refresh() we will get the model back again, which, if I understand correctly, is not the intended goal of this method.

Steps To Reproduce:

>>> $user = User::first()
[!] Aliasing 'User' to 'App\User' for this Tinker session.
=> App\User {#2919
     id: 3,
     name: "Sienna Becker",
     email: "[email protected]",
     email_verified_at: "2018-11-16 06:21:34",
     created_at: "2018-11-16 06:21:34",
     updated_at: "2018-11-16 06:21:34",
   }
>>> $user->delete()
=> true
>>> $user->fresh()
=> null
>>> $user->refresh()
=> App\User {#2919
     id: 3,
     name: "Sienna Becker",
     email: "[email protected]",
     email_verified_at: "2018-11-16 06:21:34",
     created_at: "2018-11-16 06:21:34",
     updated_at: "2018-11-16 06:21:34",
   }
>>> 

if someone could confirm that this is a bug I'll send a MR for it

[mfn]

As evident by gits history, it was made on purpose albeit with no discussion I could quickly find:

• first introduced, did not return $this => [5.4] Add Model::refresh() #19174
• 3 months later changed without much fanfare => [5.4] Return the instance after Model::refresh() #20657

Best to ask @themsaid wo did the change.

But in any event, it's seems quite deliberate and not like a bug so a change should be discussed on https://github.com/laravel/ideas

[driesvints]

@mfn thanks for explaining!

[djug]

@driesvints I think we still need to wait for @themsaid for this one, since he wrote the code (because there is a chance the code needs to be fixed).

could you please reopen it?

[driesvints]

@djug I pinged him but you can always reach him on discord etc

[devcircus]

These two methods were designed to have different behavior. This is what I would expect.

[themsaid]

This was made like this so $model->refresh()->exists return false after deletion. You still have the model object after it was deleted so you can check the current state.