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 ($u = User::where('email', '=', $value)->first())
{
   // do something with $u
   return 'exists';
} else {
  return 'nope';
}

would work with try/catch

->get() would still return an empty array