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

Checking for null within if statement prevents Laravel from returning 404 immediately after the query is over.

if ( User::find( $userId ) === null ) {

    return "user does not exist";
}
else {
    $user = User::find( $userId );

    return $user;
}

It seems like it runs double query if the user is found, but I can't seem to find any other reliable solution.