Laravel 4.2: Convert a SQL select statement to Eloquent statement

I have the following DB::select statement:

DB::select("SELECT user_id, COUNT(*) AS orders_count FROM order_book as ob WHERE session_id='".$session_id."' GROUP BY user_id");

Which its result will be something like:

[{
"user_id": 2,
"orders_count": 6
},
{
"user_id": 340,
"orders_count": 83
},
{
"user_id": 341,
"orders_count": 88
}]

what is the equivalent statement using the Eloquent model?

This is what I have so far:

Order::whereSession_id($session_id)->select('user_id','Count(*)')->groupBy('user‌​_id')->get();

Answer

You can use this:

Order::select('user_id', DB::raw('count(*) as orders_count'))
     ->where('session_id', $session_id)
     ->groupBy('user‌​_id')
     ->get();

You need to use DB::raw when using count in your query’s select, because otherwise it will get quoted by PDO.