Laravel Checking If a Record Exists

Question

I am new to Laravel. Please excuse the newbie question but how do I find if a record exists?

$user = User::where(\'em         


        

Answer 1

if (User::where('email', 'user@email.com')->first()) {
    // It exists
} else {
    // It does not exist
}

Use first(), not count() if you only need to check for existence.

first() is faster because it checks for a single match whereas count() counts all matches.