It would be super if ORM didn't actually run a query until the last minute

[Altreus]

It's often necessary to filter a result. In ORM you have the option of doing a find() or accessing a relation on an object, in which case you get results immediately, or writing your own methods or using query() to create a custom search.

The structure of ORM at the moment, however, means that the first examples could easily return the same type of object as query() does - one on which you can then run further methods.

e.g.

$posts = Model_Blog::find(1)->posts;  // array
$recent_posts = Model_Blog::find(1)->posts->where('posted', '>', \DB::expr('NOW() - INTERVAL 1 WEEK');  // can't do this

You can do this -

$recent_posts = Model_Blog::query()
    ->where('id', 1)
    ->related('posts')
    ->where('posted', '>', \DB::expr('NOW() - INTERVAL 1 WEEK');

• but this defeats the point of using ORM in the first place.

Further, you could then do

$recent_posts->get();

Like you already do, but if you did

foreach ($recent_posts as $id => $post)

it would do it for you. That is to say, an ORM Query object could be iterable by running it and iterating the result.