What is the proper way to use a findBy’Field’ method? - forms

Question

I am trying to compare an email address inputed from a form to what is already in the database and I figure the best way to do so is with using a findByEmail method.
I expected that to find the email address for a specific entry in the table but instead it returns the whole entry (first name, last name, and more…).
How do I only find the email address of the entry in the table?
I know I can use a foreach to iterate through the entry but I think that kinda defeats the purpose of using a findByEmail function.
Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
$formEmail = $form->get('email')->getData();
$personEmail = $em->getRepository('UserBundle:User')->findByEmail($formEmail); //Should just find the email address of a person in the database.
var_dump($personsEmail); //returns the whole row associated with the email address (first name, last name…..)
var_dump(if($formEmail == $personEmail));die; //returns false when it should be true because it finds the whole row instead of the email address

Answer 1

If you fetched the entity successfully by email then the email must match.
$formEmail = $form->get('email')->getData();
$person = $em->getRepository('UserBundle:User')->findOneByEmail($formEmail);
if ($person instanceof User) {
// you found a user by email, so the email therefore must match ...
}
Note, use findOneBy not findBy, then you will fetch the object directly instead of in a collection.
Alternatively if you must fetch just the email address for comparison.
$email = $em->createQueryBuilder()
->select('u.email')
->from('UserBundle:User', 'u')
->where('u.email = :email')
->setParameter('email', $formEmail)
->getQuery()
->getSingleScalarResult()
;
Note though that you could just use $person->getEmail() in my first example for the same result.