Difference between method calls $model->relation(); and $model->relation;

Short answer

$model->relation() returns the relationship object

$model->relation returns the result of the relationship

Long answer

$model->relation() can be explained pretty simple. You're calling the actual function you defined your relation with. Yours for distributor probably looks somewhat like this:

public function distributors(){
    return $this->hasMany('Distributor');
}

So when calling $store->distributors() you just get the return value of $this->hasMany('Distributor') which is an instance of Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\HasMany

When do you use it?

You usually would call the relationship function if you want to further specify the query before you run it. For example add a where statement:

$distributors = $store->distributors()->where('priority', '>', 4)->get();

Of course you can also just do this: $store->distributors()->get() but that has the same result as $store->distributors.

---

Which brings me to the explanation of the dynamic relationship property.

Laravel does some things under the hood to allow you to directly access the results of a relationship as property. Like: $model->relation.

Here's what happens in Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model

1) The properties don't actually exist. So if you access $store->distributors the call will be proxied to __get()

2) This method then calls getAttribute with the property name getAttribute('distributors')

public function __get($key)
{
    return $this->getAttribute($key);
}

3) In getAttribute it checks if the relationship is already loaded (exists in relations). If not and if a relationship method exists it will load the relation (getRelationshipFromMethod)

public function getAttribute($key)
{
    // code omitted for brevity

    if (array_key_exists($key, $this->relations))
    {
        return $this->relations[$key];
    }

    $camelKey = camel_case($key);

    if (method_exists($this, $camelKey))
    {
        return $this->getRelationshipFromMethod($key, $camelKey);
    }
}

4) In the end Laravel calls getResults() on the relation which then results in a get() on the query builder instance. (And that gives the same result as $model->relation()->get().

The direct answer to your question:

• $store->distributors() will return the actual relationship object (\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsToMany).
• $store->distributors will be a collection containing the results of the relationship query (\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection).
• $store->distributors()->get() will be a collection containing the results of the relationship query (\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection).
• $store->distributors->get() should return an error since you're calling get() on a Collection object and the first parameter is not optional. If not an error, it should at least return null.

More information:

Given the following model:

class Store extends Eloquent {
    public function distributors() {
        return $this->belongsToMany('Distributor');
    }
}

Calling the relationship method ($store->distributors()) will return to you the relationship (\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Relations\BelongsToMany) object. This is basically a query object which you can continue to modify, but you still need to call some type of method to get the results (e.g. get(), first(), etc).

However, accessing the relationship attribute ($store->distributors) will return to you a collection (\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection) object containing the results from executing the relationship query.

By default, the relationship attribute is created and assigned a value the first time it is accessed (known as "lazy loading"). So, the first time you access $store->distributors, behind the scenes it is executing the relationship query, storing the results in the $store->distributors attribute, and then returning those results. However, it only does this once. The next time you access $store->distributors, the attribute already contains the data, so that is what you are accessing.

To illustrate this:

// the following two statements will run the query twice
$r1 = $store->distributors()->get();
$r2 = $store->distributors()->get();

// the following two statements will run the query once.
// the first statement runs the query, populates $store->distributors, and assigns the variable
// the second statement just accesses the data now stored in $store->distributors
$r3 = $store->distributors;
$r4 = $store->distributors;

// at the end, $r1 == $r2 == $r3 == $r4

Relationships can also be "eager" loaded, using the with() method on the query. This is done to alleviate all of the extra queries that may be needed for lazy loading (known as the n+1 problem). You can read more about that here.