I buckled and used raw queries :(
Here's what it looks like.
$agecounter = 0;// tells me how many from age to age pairs were filed out coorrectly.
foreach( array_combine($fromAgeValue, $toAgeValue) as $from=>$to ){
if(($from!=null)&&($to!=null)){
$agecounter+=1;
}
}
$agelength = sizeof($fromAgeValue);
$ageflag = 0;
foreach( array_combine($fromAgeValue, $toAgeValue) as $from=>$to ){
if($ageflag==0){
if(($from!=null)&&($to!=null)){
$query = Subject::addfromAgeToAge($query, $from, $to, $agecounter); // ages put in for loop when multiple are added.
$ageflag=1; // add or's
$agecounter -=1;
}
}else if(($from!=null)&&($to!=null)){
$query = Subject::orfromAgeToAge($query, $from, $to, $agecounter);
$agecounter -=1;
}
}
and in my Model:
static function addfromAgeToAge($query, $from, $to, $count){
if($count>1){
return $query->whereRaw('( Age between ? and ?', array($from, $to));
}
return $query-> whereBetween('Age', array($from, $to));
}
static function orfromAgeToAge($query, $from, $to, $count){
if($count==1){
return $query->orWhereRaw(' Age between ? and ?)', array($from, $to));
}
return $query->orWhereRaw(' Age between ? and ?', array($from, $to));//('Age', array($fromAge, $toAge));
}
Hope this helps someone else put ()'s in a query builder.