MySQL type CHAR problem in Laravel Eloquent

Question

They say, if you want to find the answer, ask the right question. Really, here I don't know what to ask. Because I don't know what's happening.

Migration:create_table1_table

$table->char('code', 1)->primary();
$table->string('name', 50);

I seeded the database and the following is a sample:

code: d
name: district

In tinker:

$t1 = Table1::find('d');

returns:

=>App\Models\Table1 {#3249                                
      code: "d",         
      name: "district",
  }

Here where I cannot understand:

$t1->code; //returns 0 <---This should be 'd'
$t1->name; //returns district

This causes my model which has a hasMany(Table2::class, 't1_pk') relationship with table2 to not work correctly:

public function table2 () {
    return $this->hasMany(Table2::class, 't1_pk');
}

Then:

$t1->table2()->toSql();

Returns:

select * from `table2` where `table2`.`t1_pk` = ? and `table2`.`t1_pk` is not null

//Here the foreign key "table2.t1_pk" that must be matched with the value of "table1.code = 'd'" changes to ? (anything).

What so far I understood column 'code' type juggles to integer:

getType($t1->code); //returns Integer

What is going on here and how to make laravel's Eloquent hasMany() to generate a correct query?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You have to cast your custom primary key to the correct type and ensure that Eloquent doesn't think that your primary key is auto incrementable:

class Table1 extends Model { 

    public $incrementing = false;

    protected $casts = [
        'code' => 'string'
    ];

...
}