How do I use the Laravel ORM to join on a string column? -

i have voters table , voter_tags table:

voters:   id int   ... // other stuff  voter_tags:   id int   voter_id int   tag string 

the voter_tag table simple , doesn't need id, that's fine. don't want have model voter_tag because seems heavyweight. (is it?)

i want add function voter model:

class voter extends model {   public function voter_tag(){     return $this->hasmany(?); // goes here?   }    // ... more stuff } 

while know how wire relationship model (eg voter_phone model works fine), if want list of strings function call? need make voter_tag model show list of tags? seems heavyweight.

is there lightweight way orm include list of strings join table?

ok eloquent way not heavyweight imo. easy setup , lot of benefits , syntactic sugar. under hood going execute exact same query. being said. if don't want create model can use query builder this:

db::table('voter_tags')     ->join('voters', 'voters.id', '=', 'voter_tags.voter_id')     ->where('voters.id', '=', $this->id)     ->count(); 

hope helps!