Increment columns in laravel

Stefan Izdrail

Founder & Senior Architect · 2026-06-29

Laravel Company
Title: Efficiently Increment Multiple Columns in Laravel In Laravel, you can increment a column's value through queries using the update function of Eloquent models or Builder classes. However, when you want to perform an increment operation on multiple columns at once, things get more complex. This blog post will show you how to achieve that efficiently in Laravel using various techniques and ways. 1. DB::statement() for Raw Queries: This approach involves wrapping your SQL statements related to column increments with the `DB::statement()` method. Here's an example: ```php $sql = "UPDATE my_table SET column1 = (column1 + 2), column2 = (column2 + 10), column3 = (column3 + 13), column4 = (column4 + 5) WHERE rowID = 1;"; DB::statement($sql); ``` In this example, you're updating the values for multiple columns simultaneously through a raw SQL statement. This approach might be useful in some scenarios but can lead to SQL injection vulnerabilities if the input is not sanitized properly. 2. Eloquent Model Updates: You can update multiple columns on specific rows using Eloquent model updates, as shown below: ```php $myTableModel = MyTable::where('rowID', 1)->first(); $myTableModel->update([ 'column1' => $myTableModel->column1 + 2, 'column2' => $myTableModel->column2 + 10, 'column3' => $myTableModel->column3 + 13, 'column4' => $myTableModel->column4 + 5, ]); ``` This approach ensures type safety and better protection against SQL injection but requires more code. It also has an overhead as it loads the data into the model first. 3. Laravel Eloquent Mutators: You can create a custom mutator on your Eloquent model to achieve column increment in each row without explicitly updating it. Here's how you could do that: ```php // Model public function getColumn1Attribute($value) { return $this->getOriginal('column1') + 2; } ... public function setColumn1Attribute($value) { $this->attributes['column1'] = $value; } ``` Now, every time you access the `column1` attribute from your Eloquent model, it will be incremented by 2. To reset this behavior, simply remove these mutators or set the value to 0. This approach is efficient but limited in functionality as it only works for a single column at once and requires changes on your model and database table. 4. Laravel Helper Functions: You can create helper functions to simplify complex queries and make them more readable. In this example, the function `updateAllColumns()` updates all columns specified by their names and increment values for a given row in the table: ```php function updateAllColumns($rowID, $columnNames, $incrementValues) { DB::table('my_table') ->where('rowID', $rowID) ->update(array_combine($columnNames, array_map(fn($value) => $value + $incrementValues[$key], $incrementValues))); } ``` To call this function: ```php $columnNames = ['column1', 'column2', 'column3', 'column4']; $incrementValues = [2, 10, 13, 5]; updateAllColumns(1, $columnNames, $incrementValues); ``` This approach is flexible and easily customizable. You can update any number of columns by adjusting the `$columnNames` array and their increment values in `$incrementValues`. In conclusion, there are various ways to efficiently increment multiple columns in Laravel depending on your specific needs. By combining these techniques, you can achieve different levels of efficiency based on the complexity of the queries you need to perform. Always remember to choose the most suitable option for your project and ensure it provides sufficient protection against security vulnerabilities.