Laravel form validation unique using 2 fields

Question

How can I have a unique validation rule on 2 fields?

a. The application should not allow two people to have the same identical first name and last name.

It i

Answer 1

The built in unique validator wouldn't really support what you're trying to do. It's purpose is to ensure that a single valid is unique in the database, rather than a composite of two values. However, you can create a custom validator:

Validator::extend('uniqueFirstAndLastName', function ($attribute, $value, $parameters, $validator) {
    $count = DB::table('people')->where('firstName', $value)
                                ->where('lastName', $parameters[0])
                                ->count();

    return $count === 0;
});

You could then access this new rule with:

'firstName' => "uniqueFirstAndLastName:{$request->lastName}"

You'll probably find you might need to tweak your database query a little bit as it's untested.