How to determine if a record exists in the database in Laravel

Overview

It is crucial to check whether or not a record exists because it helps remove duplicates and prevents the incorrect processing of data.

In this shot, we will be using the exists() method to check whether or not a record exists.

What is the exists() method?

The exists() method is a query builder method that checks for the existence of a record in a database table. Instead of counting how many copies of a certain record exist, we can directly check for the existence using the exists() method.

Syntax

DB::table('tablename')->where(constraint)->exists()

Parameters

The exists() method does not take any parameters.

Example

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;

if (DB::table('users')->where('id', 1)->exists()) {
    // ...
}

Explanation

In the example above, we chain the exists() method to the where() clause to check whether the user with an id of 1 exists. The code block inside the if condition will execute if the user exists. If the user does not exist, the code block inside the if condition will be skipped during code execution.