New scalar() method

In Laravel 9.8.0, the scalar() method was added that allows you to retrieve the first column of the first row from the query result.

1// Before
2DB::selectOne("SELECT COUNT(CASE WHEN food = 'burger' THEN 1 END) AS burgers FROM menu_items;")->burgers
3// Now
4DB::scalar("SELECT COUNT(CASE WHEN food = 'burger' THEN 1 END) FROM menu_items;")

Tip given by @justsanjit