Four Laravel Query Fixes That Make Slow Database Code Much Faster

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A Laravel developer explains that slow pages and jobs usually stem from everyday query habits rather than complex issues. Common culprits include wrapping columns in functions that block index use, computing totals in PHP instead of the database, and loading large row sets into memory just to aggregate them. Benchmarks on a one-million-row MariaDB table show dramatic gains, such as sums dropping from 5.8 seconds to 0.15 seconds and grouping falling from 25.8 seconds to 1.1 seconds. The author also recommends wrapping bulk inserts in a single transaction to avoid paying the commit cost on every row. The fixes center on letting the database do the heavy lifting and returning only the results that are actually needed.

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