Model methods that take arrays as arguments should also be allowed to take Collections

[BrekiTomasson]

Say I have the following:

>>> $country = Country::firstWhere('name', 'Sweden');
=> App\Models\World\Country {#5391
     id: 197,
     name: "Sweden",
     alpha2: "SE",
     alpha3: "SWE",
     language: null,
     demonym: null,
     pop_millions: null
   }

If I wanted to update the null fields, I can do so using the instantiated variable or directly on the Model class, but I have to use an array:

>>> $country->update(['language' => 'Swedish', 'demonym' => 'Swede', 'pop_millions' => 10]);

>>> Country::where('id', $country->id)->update(['language' => 'Swedish', 'demonym' => 'Swede', 'pop_millions' => 10]);

But I can't do this:

>>> $country = Country::firstWhere('name', 'Sweden');
>>> $changes = new Illuminate\Support\Collection()
>>> $changes->put('demonym', 'Swede')
>>> $changes->put('language', 'Swedish')
>>> $changes->put('pop_millions', 10)
>>> $country->update($changes);

I know it's as easy as doing $country->update($changes->toArray()), of course, but it's not immediately obvious why updating a Model using an "arrayable" collection like this shouldn't be handled natively. Under the hood, it could be as simple as rewriting the methods in Illuminate\Database\Eloquent to something like (using update() as an example):

    public function update(array|BaseCollection $attributes = [], array $options = [])
    {
        if ($attributes instanceof BaseCollection) {
            $attributes = $attributes->toArray();
        }

        if (! $this->exists) {
            return false;
        }

        return $this->fill($attributes)->save($options);
    }

[michael-rubel]

Hi @BrekiTomasson

This one would be a breaking change if was added at the minor release. I'm not sure it wouldn't introduce bugs across the codebase. Will require a code review in a lot of places definitely, so I don't see it earlier than in Laravel 10.x or even 11.x.