orderBy not working with as keyword laravel query

Question

I'm using query and orderby isn't working

$query = Post::query()->latest();
if ($request->input('popular') == 'true') {
  $query->where('hide_search',0)->orderByDesc('viewer');
}

and

if ($request->input('popular') == 'true') {
 $query->where('hide_search',0)->orderByDesc('posts.viewer');
}

and

if ($request->input('popular') == 'true') {
 $query->where('hide_search',0)->orderBy('posts.viewer','DESC');
}

Answer 1

First the latest() method already applies a "order by" keyword to your query, and takes the priority. Secondly, I'm confused as to what you're trying to do, as all your if statements have the same condition. And finally, if you want to add additional clauses to your keywords inside conditional statements, you should also update your original query variable, like this:

$query = Post::query()->latest();
if ($request->input('popular') == 'true') {
  $query = $query->where('hide_search',0)->orderByDesc('viewer');
}

Answer 2

Analyzing your code

You have already sorted the created_at column using the latest() function. If you want to sort within this by views, it can only consider the order of views where the created_at values are the same.
latest() - Laravel Docs

Original Records

I'll show you an example:

posts table
------------------------------------------
ID  |  name   |  viewer  |   created_at
------------------------------------------
1   |  First  |  12      |   2022-01-01
2   |  Secon  |  8       |   2022-01-02
3   |  Examp  |  46      |   2022-01-01
4   |  Usual  |  21      |   2022-01-03
5   |  Nowus  |  32      |   2022-01-01

$query = Post()::latest(); // order by created_at desc

Result after order by created_at desc

Now value of $query:

posts table
------------------------------------------
ID  |  name   |  viewer  |   created_at
------------------------------------------
4   |  Usual  |  21      |   2022-01-03
2   |  Secon  |  8       |   2022-01-02
1   |  First  |  12      |   2022-01-01
3   |  Examp  |  46      |   2022-01-01
5   |  Nowus  |  32      |   2022-01-01

If you perform another sorting after this, you won't be able to override the sorting applied to the created_at column. Instead, you can only establish a more specific order within the records that have the same date:

$query = Post()::latest(); // order by created_at desc
$query->orderByDesc('viewer'); // then... order by viewer desc

Result after order by created_at desc AND order by viewer desc

Now value of $query:

posts table
------------------------------------------
ID  |  name   |  viewer  |   created_at
------------------------------------------
4   |  Usual  |  21      |   2022-01-03
2   |  Secon  |  8       |   2022-01-02
3   |  Examp  |  46      |   2022-01-01    <---
5   |  Nowus  |  32      |   2022-01-01
1   |  First  |  12      |   2022-01-01    <--- order by viewer where has same date

---

Solution for get popular post

If you need the most popular post, you don't need to sort by the created_at column using the fast function latest(). Instead, you can directly sort by the viewer column.

Original Records

I'll show you an example:

posts table
------------------------------------------
ID  |  name   |  viewer  |   created_at
------------------------------------------
1   |  First  |  12      |   2022-01-01
2   |  Secon  |  8       |   2022-01-02
3   |  Examp  |  46      |   2022-01-01
4   |  Usual  |  21      |   2022-01-03
5   |  Nowus  |  32      |   2022-01-01

if ($request->input('popular') == 'true') {
  // if need return with order by viewer (so, value of created_at doesn't matter)
  $query = Post::orderByDesc('viewer');
}
else {
  // else, need return with order by created at date
  $query = Post::latest();
}

return $query;

Result after order by viewer desc [IF $request->input('popular') WILL TRUE]

I'll show you an example:

posts table
------------------------------------------
ID  |  name   |  viewer  |   created_at
------------------------------------------
3   |  Examp  |  46      |   2022-01-01
5   |  Nowus  |  32      |   2022-01-01
4   |  Usual  |  21      |   2022-01-03
1   |  First  |  12      |   2022-01-01
2   |  Secon  |  8       |   2022-01-02