[8.x] Create Collection chunkInto method

[browner12]

This methods defines the number of chunks we would like to end up with. It fills all non-last chunks first, before placing the remainder in the final chunk.

This method is similar to, but different than, split().

Given the following Collection:

$array = collect([1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]);

$array->split(3) will return 3 chunks of sizes 4, 3, and 3.

$array->chunkInto(3) will return 3 chunks of sizes 4, 4, and 2.

[taylorotwell]

Can you explain in simple terms how it is fundamentally different than split and when you would use one over the other?

[browner12]

split will make it so each chunk never differs in count from another chunk by more than 1.

chunkInto will fill all earlier chunks completely before allocating the remainder to the final chunk.

On one of our sites, we have a sitemap page with a list of all the pages on the site. I wanted to display them in columns, and I wanted it display like in the second picture. This is where chunkInto handles what I need, and split does not.

[taylorotwell]

One thing giving me a bit of pause is we have used the "into" language to indicate something will be injected into a class... mapInto and pipeInto for example.

[browner12]

Gotcha. Yah, I'm totally open to other names. Maybe sticking with the split prefix is more appropriate, too, since chunk defines the number of items in the chunk, and split defines the number of chunks. This new method just allots them differently.

• splitBy
• splitIn

Another option would be to pass a second parameter flag to split() although I know we're not normally too keen on that.

[taylorotwell]

I think I'm fine with splitIn.

[JosephSilber]

This enumerates the whole collection twice 😢

[browner12]

I'll admit I don't understand the lazy collections as well, so if there's a better way to do this, definitely open to it.