How to avoid duplicate entries in pivot table in Laravel

Created at 22-Apr-2021 , By samar

How to avoid duplicate entries in pivot table in Laravel

With this article, we will examine several different instances of how to solve the "How to avoid duplicate entries in pivot table in Laravel".

We can define foreign key columns with composite keys (multiple columns with primary key definition) which have unique value properties. In this way, we can avoid duplicate entries in the pivot table in Laravel.
  • Create pivot table with composite key in Laravel

    Run migration command to create pivot table

    php artisan make:migration create_project_user_table --create=project_user
    

    Add columns to migration file

    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('project_user', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->foreignId('user_id')->constrained();
            $table->foreignId('project_id')->constrained();
            $table->boolean('is_manager')->default(false);
            $table->primary(['user_id', 'project_id']);
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }
    

    Run migration command

    php artisan migrate
    

    Create projects() method with belongsToMany Relationship in - App\Models\User.php .

    // App\Models\User.php
    public function projects(){
        return $this->belongsToMany('App\Models\Project')
                    ->withPivot('is_manager')
                    ->withTimestamps();
    }
    

    Create a contoller and add the below method in it.

    app\Http\Controllers<YourController>.php

    Code under controller’s method

    $user = User::findOrFail(2);
    $projectIds = array('1', '2');
    try{
        $user->projects()->attach($projectIds, ['is_manager'=>1]);
    }catch(\Exception $e){
        return $e->getMessage();
    }
    

    This code snippet will insert the value in the pivot table if the value of both column user_id and project_id is unique else it will give SQL error SQLSTATE[23000]: Integrity constraint violation: 1062 Duplicate entry '1-2' for key 'PRIMARY'. So it avoids duplicate data entry in a table with a combination of user_id and project_id columns.

    In the Pivot table, project_id and user_id columns have been set as the primary keys so there cannot be duplicates with both the same user_id and project_id.

     

    To create project model and table structure of project table visit here - Create project table with model and migration .
    If you want to get code snippets to create pivot table for projects and users tables you can visit here -  create pivot table for projects and users table  .
  • Create if not exists and update record if exists in pivot table with extra column using attach and updateExistingPivot method in Laravel

    --PATH routes\web.php
    Route::get('/save-or-update-pivot-table-record', function(){
        $user = App\Models\User::find(1);
        $project = App\Models\Project::find(1);
    
        if (!$user->projects->contains($project->id)) {
            $user->projects()->attach($project->id, ['is_manager'=> 1]) ;
        }else{
            $user->projects()->updateExistingPivot($project->id, ['is_manager'=> 0]);
        }
    });
    

    This code snippet will help you to create a record in pivot table with extra column if record is not already exists in it and update record if exists in pivot table.

     

    Projects method with belongsToMany relation

    app\Models\User.php

    public function projects(){
        return $this->belongsToMany('App\Models\Project')
                    ->withPivot('is_manager')
                    ->withTimestamps();
    }
  • Create if not exists and update record if exists in pivot table with additional column using sync method

    --PATH routes\web.php
    Route::get('/save-or-update-pivot-table-record', function(){
        $user = App\Models\User::find(1);
        $project = App\Models\Project::find(1);
        $user->projects()->sync([$project->id => ['is_manager'=> 1]], false);
    });
    

    This code snippet will help you to create a new record if the record is not already exist in pivot table else it will update the existing record from table.

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