This article discusses a solution for when withCount couldn't be retrieved even though relations were working fine in Laravel.

Not Being Able to Retrieve withCount When Written After select

Successful Example

$posts = Post::select('title')
  ->withCount('likes') // It can be retrieved when written after select
  ->get();

Failing Example

$posts = Post::withCount('likes') // It cannot be retrieved when written before select
  ->select('title')
  ->get();

As you can see, if you write withCount before select, it will not be retrievable.

Why This Problem Occurs

The select() method specifies which columns to retrieve in the query.

The issue arises because when withCount() adds likes_count to the query, using select() afterwards excludes likes_count due to that select().

Therefore, you need to specify select() first to construct the query.

Basic Syntax of withCount

This article provides more detailed information.

⇨How to Count the Total of Related Models in Laravel and Display It Using withCount

When You Might Be Using the Wrong Relationship Method

Regarding the relationship methods, I have written separate articles aiming for clarity, which you can refer to.

How to Create a One-to-One Relationship in Laravel【hasOne】

How to Save and Display a One-to-Many Relationship in Laravel【hasMany】

How to Save and Display a Many-to-One Relationship in Laravel; the Inverse of One-to-Many【belongsTo】

How to Save and Display a Many-to-Many Relationship in Laravel【belongsToMany】

That’s all.

I hope this helps someone out there.