symfony2 filter in manytomany relation - symfony

Question

I have an entity called User that has the following:
class User implements UserInterface
{
/**
* #ORM\Id
* #ORM\Column(type="string",length=100)
**/
protected $id_user;
/** #ORM\Column(type="string")
*/
protected $surname;
/**
* #ORM\Column(type="string",length=50)
*/
protected $name;
/**
* #var ArrayCollection $friends
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="UniDocs\UserBundle\Entity\User")
* #ORM\JoinTable(name="friends",
* joinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="friend1", referencedColumnName="id_user")},
* inverseJoinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="friend2", referencedColumnName="id_user")}
* )
*/
protected $friends;
.
.
.
/**
* Get friends
*
* #return \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
*/
public function getFriends()
{
return $this->friends;
}
.
.
.
}
I need to make a query that gives me the friends of an user which name contain letter 'a' and surname letter 'b' (for example. Those letter are specified on a filter in a web form).
I know I can access all the friends of the registered user using getFriends() method, but... how to filter those friends?

Answer 1

You cannot do that using getters, you need to write a repository method and use that method in order to fetch exactly what you are looking for.
class FriendRepository extends EntityRepository
{
public function findByUserAlphabetical(User $user)
{
// do query with alphabetical stuff
return $query = ...
}
}
Then in your logic:
$friends = $friendRepository->findByUserAlphabetical($user);
$user->setFriends($friends);
Also, you will want to prevent fetching the friends in the original User query, so you can set your annotation fetch to LAZY:
/**
* #var ArrayCollection $friends
* #ORM\ManyToMany(targetEntity="UniDocs\UserBundle\Entity\User", fetch="LAZY")
* #ORM\JoinTable(name="friends",
* joinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="friend1", referencedColumnName="id_user")},
* inverseJoinColumns={#ORM\JoinColumn(name="friend2", referencedColumnName="id_user")}
* )
*/
protected $friends;