Eloquent ->first() if ->exists()

Question

I want to get the first row in table where condition matches:

User::where(\'mobile\', Input::get(\'mobile\'))->first()

It works well, bu

Answer 1

get returns Collection and is rather supposed to fetch multiple rows.

count is a generic way of checking the result:

$user = User::where(...)->first(); // returns Model or null
if (count($user)) // do what you want with $user

// or use this:
$user = User::where(...)->firstOrFail(); // returns Model or throws ModelNotFoundException

// count will works with a collection of course:
$users = User::where(...)->get(); // returns Collection always (might be empty)
if (count($users)) // do what you want with $users