Collection Call Optimization Analyzer

Analyzer ID	Category	Severity	Time To Fix
collection-call-optimization	⚡ Performance	High	45 minutes

What This Checks

Uses PHPStan/Larastan to detect inefficient collection operations that should be performed at the database query level instead of in-memory:

• Model::all()->count() → Should use Model::count()
• Model::all()->sum('column') → Should use Model::sum('column')
• ->get()->count() → Should use ->count()
• Other collection aggregations that could be database queries
• Operations that unnecessarily load all records into memory

Detection Method: Leverages Larastan's built-in noUnnecessaryCollectionCall rule for accurate detection.

Why It Matters

• Database Performance: Loading entire result sets into memory when you only need aggregates wastes database resources
• Memory Usage: Model::all() loads every record; for large tables this causes out-of-memory errors
• Query Efficiency: Database aggregation functions (COUNT, SUM, AVG) are orders of magnitude faster than PHP loops
• Scalability: Code that works with 100 records fails catastrophically with 100,000 records

How to Fix

Quick Fix (5 minutes)

Replace collection aggregations with database queries:

Count Records:

// ❌ Before: Loads all records into memory
$userCount = User::all()->count();

// ✅ After: Database count
$userCount = User::count();

Sum Values:

// ❌ Before: Loads all orders, sums in PHP
$totalRevenue = Order::all()->sum('amount');

// ✅ After: Database aggregation
$totalRevenue = Order::sum('amount');

Average Values:

// ❌ Before: Loads all products, averages in PHP
$avgPrice = Product::all()->avg('price');

// ✅ After: Database aggregation
$avgPrice = Product::avg('price');

Proper Fix (45 minutes)

1. Query Builder Optimization:

// ❌ Before: Two queries - get() loads data, count() counts in PHP
$activeUsers = User::where('status', 'active')->get()->count();

// ✅ After: Single database count
$activeUsers = User::where('status', 'active')->count();

2. Complex Aggregations:

// ❌ Before: Loads all records, groups in PHP memory
$ordersByMonth = Order::all()->groupBy(function($order) {
    return $order->created_at->format('Y-m');
});

// ✅ After: Database grouping
$ordersByMonth = Order::query()
    ->selectRaw('DATE_FORMAT(created_at, "%Y-%m") as month, COUNT(*) as count')
    ->groupBy('month')
    ->get();

3. Conditional Aggregation:

// ❌ Before: Loads all users, filters in PHP
$premiumUserCount = User::all()
    ->where('subscription_type', 'premium')
    ->count();

// ✅ After: Filter at database level
$premiumUserCount = User::where('subscription_type', 'premium')->count();

4. When Collection Operations ARE Appropriate:

// ✅ Correct: When you need the actual collection for multiple operations
$activeUsers = User::where('status', 'active')->get();
$userCount = $activeUsers->count();  // Already loaded, no extra query
$avgAge = $activeUsers->avg('age');   // Computing from loaded data
$names = $activeUsers->pluck('name'); // Extracting from loaded data

5. Pagination Caveat:

// ⚠️ Note: paginate() automatically uses count() internally
// This is correct, not a performance issue
$users = User::paginate(50);  // Uses COUNT(*) for pagination automatically

ShieldCI Configuration

This analyzer is automatically skipped in CI environments ($runInCI = false).

Why skip in CI?

• PHPStan analysis can be slow on large codebases
• Prevents CI pipeline slowdowns from comprehensive code analysis

When to run this analyzer:

• ✅ Local development: Pre-commit checks during feature development
• ❌ CI/CD pipelines: Skipped automatically (can be slow)

References

• Laravel Collections
• Laravel Query Builder
• Laravel Eloquent Aggregates
• Larastan Documentation
• PHPStan Documentation

Related Analyzers

• MySQL Single Server Optimization Analyzer - Detects MySQL read/write configuration on single server