Check if an array contains any element of another array in doctrine query builder

Question

I would like to know if it's possible to check if an array contains any element of another array in doctrine query builder.

In my case, i want to get all the products (items) who have at least one of the category in the array passed in parameter.

Relationship between Item and Category :

/**
 *  @ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="Category")
 *  @ORM\JoinTable(name="items_categories",
 *      joinColumns={@ORM\JoinColumn(name="item_id", referencedColumnName="id", nullable=false)},
 *      inverseJoinColumns={@ORM\JoinColumn(name="category_id", referencedColumnName="id", nullable=false)}
 *      )
 */
private $categories;

My first try from the Item repository (i know this work if i have only one value to check):

public function getListItemsFromCatList($listCat) {
    $qb = $this->createQueryBuilder('i');

    $qb->select('i')
            ->where($qb->expr()->like('i.categories', ':listCat'))
            ->setParameter('listCat', '%"' . $listCat . '"%');

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

$listCat is an array of Category Entity :

array (size=5)
  0 => 
    object(ItemBundle\Entity\Category)[518]
      private 'id' => int 22
      private 'children' => 
        object(Doctrine\ORM\PersistentCollection)[520]
          private 'snapshot' => 
            array (size=2)
              ...
          private 'owner' => 
            &object(ItemBundle\Entity\Category)[518]
          private 'association' => 
            array (size=15)
              ...
          private 'em' => 
            object(Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager)[796]
              ...
          private 'backRefFieldName' => string 'parent' (length=6)
          private 'typeClass' => 
            object(Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\ClassMetadata)[579]
              ...
          private 'isDirty' => boolean false
          protected 'collection' => 
            object(Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection)[515]
              ...
          protected 'initialized' => boolean true
      private 'parent' => null
      private 'name' => string 'Luxe' (length=4)
  1 => 
    object(ItemBundle\Entity\Category)[504]
      private 'id' => int 25
      private 'children' => 
        object(Doctrine\ORM\PersistentCollection)[505]
          private 'snapshot' => 
            array (size=0)
              ...
          private 'owner' => 
            &object(ItemBundle\Entity\Category)[504]
          private 'association' => 
            array (size=15)
              ...
          private 'em' => 
            object(Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager)[796]
              ...
          private 'backRefFieldName' => string 'parent' (length=6)
          private 'typeClass' => 
            object(Doctrine\ORM\Mapping\ClassMetadata)[579]
              ...
          private 'isDirty' => boolean false
          protected 'collection' => 
            object(Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection)[500]
              ...
          protected 'initialized' => boolean false
      private 'parent' => 
        object(ItemBundle\Entity\Category)[512]
          private 'id' => int 23
          private 'children' => 
            object(Doctrine\ORM\PersistentCollection)[513]
              ...
          private 'parent' => 
            object(ItemBundle\Entity\Category)[518]
              ...
          private 'name' => string 'Bijoux' (length=6)
      private 'name' => string 'Bagues' (length=6)

Answer 1

I would solve it adding a join.

public function getListItemsFromCatList($listCat) {

    $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();

    $qb = $em->createQueryBuilder();
    $qb->select('i')           
        ->from('AppBundle:Item', 'i')
        ->innerJoin('i.categories','cat')
        ->where('cat IN (:listCat)')
       ->setParameter('listCat', $listCat);

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

Notice this approach will filter the categories inside items. It means that when you try to get categories from a given item i, $i->getCategories(), it will return only the categories from i which matchs with $listCat.

If you will need to use all categories from each item, even those doesn't match with $listCat. I will recommend you to use subqueries to filter, and main query to return the full items. Let a comment if you need any futher help with that.