I have an issue in Laravel.

I am storing data into a table using eloquent and I am retrieving the newly created ID ($categoryId) of that record/model, when I dump out the ID it shows as an int (desired output)

However, when I try and use/store that ID in another table using an eloquent query ($newProduct->category\_id = $categoryId;), it fails as it adds square brackets to the value e.g. [1].

So my question is how do I get the value without the brackets so I can use it as desired in my other eloquent query?

When I try and strip the brackets off it complains that the value is already an int, so I am a bit lost with this - Thank you for any help and guidance

Below is my code:

```
$newCategory = new Category;

$newCategory->short_desc = $category;

$newCategory->save();

$categoryId = $newCategory->id;

$newProduct = new Product;

$newProduct->name = $product_name;
$newProduct->category_id = $categoryId;

$newProduct->save();

$productId = $newProduct->id;

```

Below is the error message:

```
SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1366 Incorrect integer value: '[1]' for column 'category_id' at row 1 (SQL: insert into `products` (`name`, `description`, `category_id`, `container_id`, `user_id`, `updated_at`, `created_at`) values (Razer Blade 16, AMD \" 10, [1], [2], 1, 2022-09-14 15:24:36, 2022-09-14 15:24:36))"

```

Product migration:

```
Schema::create('products', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->bigIncrements('id');
            $table->string('name', '255')->index();
            $table->text('description');
            $table->unsignedBigInteger('category_id')->nullable()->index();
            $table->unsignedBigInteger('container_id')->nullable()->index();
            $table->unsignedBigInteger('user_id')->index();
            $table->timestamps();
            $table->softDeletes();

            $table->foreign('category_id')->references('id')->on('categories');
            $table->foreign('container_id')->references('id')->on('containers');
            $table->foreign('user_id')->references('id')->on('users');
        });

```

Category migration:

```
Schema::create('categories', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->bigIncrements('id');
            $table->string('short_desc', '255');
            $table->text('description');
            $table->timestamps();
            $table->softDeletes();
        });

```