Laravel factory user id always null

Question

When trying to get a random user id in a factory, it always returns null despite the DB containing 50 users (created via the User factory).

'user_id' => User::all()->random()->id

I tried to display the retrieved resource doing this:

dd(User::all()->random())

and the result was quite consistent with what expected

App\User^ {#num
  #fillable: array:9 []
  ...
  #attributes: array:14 [
    "id" => 25
  ...
  ]
}

but this other method:

dd( User::all()->random()->id )

always returns null.

Answer 1

Keep in mind that using that method you are loading all the records in memory, then selecting one randomly to get your random object.

You could improve this querying one record in random order directly from the database:

$randomUser = User::inRandomOrder()->first();