Is it possible to exclude find for WithCount?

Question

Laravel

I check the quantity through withcount. Made in the model

public function hasModel($model)
  {
    if ($this->withCount($model)->find($this->id)->{$model.'_count'}>0) return true;
    return false;
  }

And I feel that you can do without find($this->id). We after all already address to the found object. But without find there is an error.
You can make it easier with a count:

public function hasModel($model)
    {
      if ($this->$model()->count()>0) return true;
      return false;
    }

but as far as I know from the documentation withcount is a more optimized way to count the number. Or is there no difference in this case?

Answer 1

It is necessary to call not the model, but the relation function

public function hasModel($relation)
{
  return $this->$relation()->count()>0;
}
public function comments()
{
    return $this->hasMany('App\Comment');
}
...
$this->hasModel('comments')

but in general it is better to use has

public function comments()
{
    return $this->hasMany('App\Comment');
}
...
$this->has('comments')