Doctrine Entity Repository

Creating a new Repository

You can create a new Repository where ever you want, but it’s recommended to create them in a seperate Repository folder.

While you could name the Repository file and class as you wish, it’s recommended to name the Repository EntityNameRepository, to that you could quickly find those in your folder.

Let’s assume we have an Project Entity, stored in AppBundle\Entity, it would look like this:

<?php
    
namespace AppBundle\Entity;
    
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;

/**
 * Project Entity - some information 
 *
 * @ORM\Table(name="project")
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="AppBundle\Repository\ProjectRepository")
 */
class Project
{
   // definition of the entity with attributes, getters, setter whatsoever
}
    
?>

The important part here is the line @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="AppBundle\Repository\ProjectRepository"), because it connects this Entity with the given Repository class.

Also you need to use the \Doctrine\ORM\Mapping class to use the mapping options.

The repository itself is pretty simple

<?php

namespace AppBundle\Repository;

class ProjectRepository extends \Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository
{
    public function getLastTenProjects()
    {
        // creates a QueryBuilder instance
        $qb = $this->_em->createQueryBuilder()
            ->select('p')
            ->from($this->_entityName, 'p')
            ->orderBy('p.id', 'DESC')
            ->setMaxResults(10)
        ;
        // uses the build query and gets the data from the Database
        return $qb->getQuery()->getResult();
    }
}

?>

It’s important to notice that the Repository class must extend the \Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository, so that it can work properly. Now you can add as many functions for different querys as you want.

ExpressionBuilder IN() function

If you want to use the MySQL command IN() in the QueryBuilder, you can do it with the in() function of the ExpressionBuilder class.

// get an ExpressionBuilder instance, so that you
$expressionBulder = $this->_em->getExpressionBuilder();
$qb = $this->_em->createQueryBuilder()
->select('p')
->from($this->_entityName, 'p');
->where($expressionBuilder->in('p.id', array(1,2,3,4,5)));

return $qb->getQuery()->getResult();

Make a Query with a Sub-Query

As example, only for demonstrate HOW-TO use a subquery select statement inside a select statement, suppose we what to find all user that not yet have compile the address (no records exists in the address table):

 // get an ExpressionBuilder instance, so that you
$expr = $this->_em->getExpressionBuilder();

// create a subquery in order to take all address records for a specified user id
$sub = $this->_em->createQueryBuilder()
    ->select('a')
    ->from($this->_addressEntityName, 'a')
    ->where('a.user = u.id');


$qb = $this->_em->createQueryBuilder()
    ->select('u')
    ->from($this->_userEntityName, 'u')
    ->where($expr->not($expr->exists($sub->getDQL())));

return $qb->getQuery()->getResult();