PHP 8.1: How to Efficiently Handle Conditional Database Inserts with Eloquent?
I'm working through a tutorial and I tried several approaches but none seem to work. I'm working on a Laravel application using PHP 8.1 and I need to insert a new record into the database conditionally based on whether a similar record exists. The goal is to avoid duplicate entries while ensuring that the insert is performed efficiently. I've tried using the `firstOrCreate` method from Eloquent, but it seems to always attempt an insert even when the record already exists. Here's a simplified version of my code: ```php $data = [ 'email' => 'example@example.com', 'name' => 'John Doe', ]; $user = User::firstOrCreate(['email' => $data['email']], $data); ``` When I run this code, I'm seeing multiple entries in the database for the same email, which shouldn't happen. I also considered using `updateOrInsert`, but that seems overkill since I only want to create a new entry if it does not exist. I also checked the database for existing entries beforehand, but that adds unnecessary complexity and round trips to the database. Here's what I've tried so far: - Used `firstOrCreate` method without success. - Tried to manually check for existence with `where` before calling `create`, but it’s not optimal. - Checked Laravel's documentation, but couldn't find a better solution. Is there a more efficient way to handle this scenario in Laravel without causing duplicate records or adding extra queries? Any advice or best practices would be greatly appreciated! The project is a desktop app built with Php. Cheers for any assistance!