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14.

Query Joins & Solving the N+1 Problem

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Let's start with a little, annoying problem: when we search, the term does not show up inside the search box. That sucks! Go back to the template. Ok, just add value="" to the search field. Now, hmm, how can we get that q query parameter? Well, of course, we could pass a new q variable into the template and use it. That's totally valid.

But, of course, there's a shortcut! In the template, use {{ app.request.query.get('q') }}:

62 lines | templates/comment_admin/index.html.twig
// ... lines 1 - 6
{% block content_body %}
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-12">
<h1>Manage Comments</h1>
<form>
<div class="input-group mb-3">
<input type="text"
// ... lines 15 - 16
value="{{ app.request.query.get('q') }}"
// ... line 18
>
// ... lines 20 - 25
</div>
</form>
// ... lines 28 - 58
</div>
</div>
{% endblock %}

Before we talk about this black magic, try it: refresh. It works! Woo!

Back in Twig, I hope you're now wondering: where the heck did this app variable come from? When you use Twig with Symfony, you get exactly one global variable - completely for free - called app. In fact, find your terminal, and re-run the trusty:

php bin/console debug:twig

Yep! Under "Globals", we have one: app. And it's an object called, um, AppVariable. Ah, clever name Symfony!

Back in your editor, type Shift+Shift and search for this: AppVariable. Cool! Ignore the setter methods on top - these are just for setup. The AppVariable has a couple of handy methods: getToken() and getUser() both relate to security. Then, hey! There's our favorite getRequest() method, then getSession(), getEnvironment(), getDebug() and something called "flashes", which helps render temporary messages, usually for forms.

It's not a huge class, but it's handy! We're calling getRequest(), then .query.get(), which ultimately does the same thing as the code in our controller: go to the query property and call get():

25 lines | src/Controller/CommentAdminController.php
// ... lines 1 - 9
class CommentAdminController extends Controller
{
// ... lines 12 - 14
public function index(CommentRepository $repository, Request $request)
{
$q = $request->query->get('q');
// ... lines 18 - 22
}
}

Cool. So now it's time for a totally new challenge. In addition to searching a comment's content and author name, I also want to search the comment's, article's title. For example, if I search for "Bacon", that should return some results.

The Twig For-Else Feature

Oh, by the way, here's a fun Twig feature. When we get zero results, we should probably print a nice message. On a Twig for loop, you can put an else at the end. Add a <td colspan="4">, a centering class, and: No comments found:

68 lines | templates/comment_admin/index.html.twig
// ... lines 1 - 6
{% block content_body %}
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-12">
// ... lines 10 - 28
<table class="table table-striped">
// ... lines 30 - 37
<tbody>
{% for comment in comments %}
// ... lines 40 - 55
{% else %}
<tr>
<td colspan="4" class="text-center">
No comments found
</td>
</tr>
{% endfor %}
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
{% endblock %}

Go back and try it! It works! Pff, except for my not-awesome styling skills. Use text-center:

68 lines | templates/comment_admin/index.html.twig
// ... lines 1 - 6
{% block content_body %}
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-12">
// ... lines 10 - 28
<table class="table table-striped">
// ... lines 30 - 37
<tbody>
{% for comment in comments %}
// ... lines 40 - 55
{% else %}
<tr>
<td colspan="4" class="text-center">
No comments found
</td>
</tr>
{% endfor %}
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
{% endblock %}

That's better.

Adding a Join

Anyways, back to the main event: how can we also search the article's title? In SQL, if we need to reference another table inside the WHERE clause, then we need to join to that table first.

In this case, we want to join from comment to article: an inner join is perfect. How can you do this with the QueryBuilder? Oh, it's awesome: ->innerJoin('c.article', 'a'):

82 lines | src/Repository/CommentRepository.php
// ... lines 1 - 15
class CommentRepository extends ServiceEntityRepository
{
// ... lines 18 - 34
public function findAllWithSearch(?string $term)
{
$qb = $this->createQueryBuilder('c')
->innerJoin('c.article', 'a');
// ... lines 39 - 50
}
// ... lines 52 - 80
}

That's it. When we say c.article, we're actually referencing the article property on Comment:

96 lines | src/Entity/Comment.php
// ... lines 1 - 10
class Comment
{
// ... lines 13 - 31
/**
* @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="App\Entity\Article", inversedBy="comments")
* @ORM\JoinColumn(nullable=false)
*/
private $article;
// ... lines 37 - 94
}

Thanks to that, we can be lazy! We don't need to explain to Doctrine how to join - we don't need an ON article.id = comment.article_id. Nah, Doctrine can figure that out on its own. The second argument - a - will be the "alias" for Article for the rest of the query.

Before we do anything else, go refresh the page. Nothing changes yet, but go open the profiler and click to look at the query. Yes, it's perfect! It still only selects from comment, but it does have the INNER JOIN to article!

We can now easily reference the article somewhere else in the query. Inside the andWhere(), add OR a.title LIKE :term:

82 lines | src/Repository/CommentRepository.php
// ... lines 1 - 15
class CommentRepository extends ServiceEntityRepository
{
// ... lines 18 - 34
public function findAllWithSearch(?string $term)
{
$qb = $this->createQueryBuilder('c')
->innerJoin('c.article', 'a');
if ($term) {
$qb->andWhere('c.content LIKE :term OR c.authorName LIKE :term OR a.title LIKE :term')
// ... line 42
;
}
// ... lines 45 - 50
}
// ... lines 52 - 80
}

That's all you need. Move back and refresh again. It works instantly. Check out the query again: this time we have the INNER JOIN and the extra logic inside the WHERE clause. Building queries with the query builder is not so different than writing them by hand.

Solving the N+1 (Extra Queries) Problem

You'll also notice that we still have a lot of queries: 7 to be exact. And that's because we are still suffering from the N+1 problem: as we loop over each Comment row, when we reference an article's data, a query is made for that article.

But wait... does that make sense anymore? I mean, if we're already making a JOIN to the article table, isn't this extra query unnecessary? Doesn't Doctrine already have all the data it needs from the first query, thanks to the join?

The answer is... no, or, at least not yet. Remember: while the query does join to article, it only selects data from comment. We are not fetching any article data. That's why the extra 6 queries are still needed.

But at this point, the solution to the N+1 problem is dead simple. Go back to CommentRepository and put ->addSelect('a'):

83 lines | src/Repository/CommentRepository.php
// ... lines 1 - 15
class CommentRepository extends ServiceEntityRepository
{
// ... lines 18 - 34
public function findAllWithSearch(?string $term)
{
$qb = $this->createQueryBuilder('c')
->innerJoin('c.article', 'a')
->addSelect('a');
// ... lines 40 - 51
}
// ... lines 53 - 81
}

When you create a QueryBuilder from inside a repository, that QueryBuilder automatically knows to select from its own table, so, from c. With this line, we're telling the QueryBuilder to select all of the comment columns and all of the article columns.

Try it: head back and refresh. It still works! But, yes! We're down to just one query. Go check it out: yep! It selects everything from comment and article.

The moral of the story is this: if your page has a lot of queries because Doctrine is making extra queries across a relationship, just join over that relationship and use addSelect() to fetch all the data you need at once.

But... there is one confusing thing about this. We're now selecting all of the comment data and all of the article data. But... you'll notice, the page still works! What I mean is, even though we're suddenly selecting more data, our findAllWithSearch() method still returns exactly what it did before: it returns a array of Comment objects. It does not, for example, now return Comment and Article objects.

Instead, Doctrine takes that extra article data and stores it in the background for later. But, the new addSelect() does not affect the return value. That's way different than using raw SQL.

It's now time to cross off a todo from earlier: let's add pagination!