Filtering and Sorting API Results in Laravel 12: The Smart Way

“Imagine browsing an online store with no way to search or sort — total chaos, right?”

Users expect fast, relevant, and organized data — whether it’s searching for posts, filtering by category, or sorting by price or date. Thankfully, Laravel 12 makes it easy to add filtering and sorting to your API endpoints.

In this blog post, you'll learn how to build flexible filtering and sorting logic into your Laravel 12 API step by step.

🧠 Why Filtering and Sorting Matter

Let’s say you have 1,000 blog posts. Your API user might want to:

• 🔎 Search by title or keyword
• 🗂️ Filter by author or category
• 📅 Sort by newest or oldest
• 🔼 Order alphabetically

Adding filtering and sorting gives users control and speed.

📁 Use Case: Blog Post API

Let’s work with a Post model that has these fields:

• title (string)
• content (text)
• author_id (foreign key)
• created_at (timestamp)

🛠️ Step 1: Add Filtering Logic in the Controller

Let’s enhance your PostController@index() method.

public function index(Request $request)
{
    $query = Post::query();

    // 🔍 Filter by title keyword
    if ($request->has('search')) {
        $query->where('title', 'like', '%' . $request->search . '%');
    }

    // 🧑 Filter by author ID
    if ($request->has('author_id')) {
        $query->where('author_id', $request->author_id);
    }

    // ⬆️⬇️ Sorting
    if ($request->has('sort_by') && $request->has('order')) {
        $query->orderBy($request->sort_by, $request->order);
    } else {
        $query->latest(); // default sorting
    }

    // 📦 Paginate and return
    return PostResource::collection($query->paginate(10));
}

💡 Example API Requests

Here are some examples of how users can now interact with your API:

1. Search by title

GET /api/posts?search=laravel

2. Filter by author

GET /api/posts?author_id=3

3. Sort by title (A-Z)

GET /api/posts?sort_by=title&order=asc

4. Sort by creation date (newest first)

GET /api/posts?sort_by=created_at&order=desc

You can also combine filters and sorting:

GET /api/posts?search=api&author_id=5&sort_by=title&order=asc

🧰 Step 2: Optional – Validate Filter Inputs

To avoid invalid queries, you can add validation like:

$request->validate([
    'sort_by' => 'in:title,created_at',
    'order'   => 'in:asc,desc',
]);

🔐 Step 3: Protect Sensitive Filters

If you're filtering by fields like is_admin or user_id, always make sure to add proper authorization checks:

if ($request->has('user_id') && auth()->user()->isAdmin()) {
    $query->where('user_id', $request->user_id);
}

🧪 Testing Filters and Sorting

Use Postman or Thunder Client and try:

• Searching for keywords
• Filtering by author
• Sorting by different fields

💡 You’ll instantly see how powerful and flexible your API becomes.

🧠 Summary: Filtering & Sorting in Laravel 12

• 🔍 Add smart search with where like
• 🧑 Use filters with where conditions
• ⬆️⬇️ Add sorting using orderBy()
• ✅ Always validate and secure input

🚀 Bonus Challenge

Try implementing:

• ✅ Multi-field sorting (e.g., sort by category then title)
• ✅ Filtering by related models (e.g., author name via whereHas)
• ✅ Range filters (e.g., date range or price range)