Added a way to retrieve the first column of the first row from a quer…

…y. (#41858)

* Added a way to retrieve the first column of the first row from a query result.

* styleci fixes

Connection.php

@@ -334,6 +334,33 @@ public function selectOne($query, $bindings = [], $useReadPdo = true)
         return array_shift($records);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Run a select statement and return the first column of the first row.
+     *
+     * @param  string  $query
+     * @param  array  $bindings
+     * @param  bool  $useReadPdo
+     * @return mixed
+     *
+     * @throws MultipleColumnsSelectedException
+     */
+    public function scalar($query, $bindings = [], $useReadPdo = true)
+    {
+        $record = $this->selectOne($query, $bindings, $useReadPdo);
+
+        if (is_null($record)) {
+            return null;
+        }
+
+        $record = (array) $record;
+
+        if (count($record) > 1) {
+            throw new MultipleColumnsSelectedException;
+        }
+
+        return reset($record);
+    }
+
     /**
      * Run a select statement against the database.
      *

MultipleColumnsSelectedException.php

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Illuminate\Database;
+
+use RuntimeException;
+
+class MultipleColumnsSelectedException extends RuntimeException
+{
+    //
+}