Laravel: Validation unique on update

Just a side note, most answers to this question talk about email_address while in Laravel's inbuilt auth system, the email field name is just email. Here is an example how you can validate a unique field, i.e. an email on the update:

In a Form Request, you do like this:

public function rules()
{
  return [
      'email' => 'required|email|unique:users,email,'.$this->user->id,
  ];
}

Or if you are validating your data in a controller directly:

public function update(Request $request, User $user)
{
  $request->validate([
      'email' => 'required|email|unique:users,email,'.$user->id,
  ]);
}

Update: If you are updating the signed in user and aren't injecting the User model into your route, you may encounter undefined property when accessing id on $this->user. In that case, use:

public function rules()
    {
      return [
          'email' => 'required|email|unique:users,email,'.$this->user()->id,
      ];
    }

A more elegant way since Laravel 5.7 is:

public function rules()
{
    return [
        'email' => ['required', 'email', \Illuminate\Validation\Rule::unique('users')->ignore($this->user()->id)]
    ];
}

P.S: I have added some other rules, i.e. required and email, in order to make this example clear for newbies.

---

One simple solution.

In your Model

protected $rules = [
    'email_address' => 'sometimes|required|email|unique:users',
    ..
];

In your Controller, action:update

...
$rules = User::$rules;
$rules['email_address'] = $rules['email_address'] . ',id,' . $id;
$validationCertificate  = Validator::make($input, $rules); 

---

There is an elegant way to do this. If you are using Resource Controllers, your link to edit your record will look like this:

/users/{user}/edit OR /users/1/edit

And in your UserRequest, the rule should be like this :

public function rules()
{
    return [
        'name' => [
            'required',
            'unique:users,name,' . $this->user
        ],
    ];
}

Or if your link to edit your record look like this:

/users/edit/1

You can try this also:

public function rules()
{
    return [
        'name' => [
            'required',
            'unique:users,name,' . $this->id
        ],
    ];
}

---

From Laravel 5.7, this works great

use Illuminate\Validation\Rule;

Validator::make($data, [
    'email' => [
        'required',
        Rule::unique('users')->ignore($user->id),
    ],
]);

Forcing A Unique Rule To Ignore A Given ID:

---

If i understand what you want:

'email' => 'required|email|unique:users,email_address,'. $id .''

In model update method, for exemple, should receive the $id with parameter.

Sorry my bad english.

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The Best Option is here try just once no need more code when unique validation on updating data

'email' => 'unique:users,email_address,' . $userId,

hereemailis field name and users is table name and email_address is table attribute name which you want unique and $userid is updating row id

---

an even simpler solution tested with version 5.2

in your model

// validator rules
public static $rules = array(
    ...
    'email_address' => 'email|required|unique:users,id'
);

---

Test below code:

'email' => 'required|email|unique:users,email_address,'. $id .'ID'

Where ID is the primary id of the table

---

You can try this.

protected $rules_update = [
    'email_address' => 'required|email|unique:users,email_address,'. $this->id,
    'first_name' => "required",
    'last_name' => "required",
    'password' => "required|min:6|same:password_confirm",
    'password_confirm' => "required:min:6|same:password",
    'password_current' => "required:min:6"
];

---

public function rules()
{

    switch($this->method())
    {
        case 'GET':
        case 'DELETE':
        {
            return [];
        }
        case 'POST':
        {
            return [
                'name' => 'required|unique:permissions|max:255',
                'display_name' => 'required',
            ];
        }
        case 'PUT':
        case 'PATCH':
        {
            return [                    
                'name' => 'unique:permissions,name,'.$this->get('id').'|max:255',
                'display_name' => 'required',
            ];
        }
        default:break;
    }    
}

---

Here is the solution:

For Update:

public function controllerName(Request $request, $id)

{

    $this->validate($request, [
        "form_field_name" => 'required|unique:db_table_name,db_table_column_name,'.$id
    ]);

    // the rest code
}

That's it. Happy Coding :)

---

There is a simple and elegant way to do this. If you are passing the user_id in a body request or through a query parameter. e.g

/update/profile?user_id=

Then in your request rules

  public function rules(Request $request)
    {
        return [
            'first_name' => 'required|string',
            'last_name' => 'required|string',
            'email' => ['required','email', 'string', Rule::unique('users')->ignore($request->user_id )],
            'phone_number' => ['required', 'string', Rule::unique('users')->ignore($request->user_id )],
        ];
    }

Better Still, you can pass in auth->id() in place of $request->user_id to get the login user id.

---

If you have a separate rules method. You can use easier the following syntax.

public function rules()
{
    return [
        'email' => "required|unique:users,email,{$this->id}"
    ]; 
}

---

i would solve that by doing something like this

public function rules()
{
    return [
         'name' => 
            'required|min:2|max:255|unique:courses,name,'.\Request::get('id'),
    ];
}

Where you get the id from the request and pass it on the rule

---

$rules = [
    "email" => "email|unique:users, email, '.$id.', user_id"
];

In Illuminate\Validation\Rules\Unique;

Unique validation will parse string validation to Rule object

Unique validation has pattern: unique:%s,%s,%s,%s,%s'

Corresponding with: table name, column, ignore, id column, format wheres

/**
 * Convert the rule to a validation string.
 *
 * @return string
 */
public function __toString()
{
    return rtrim(sprintf('unique:%s,%s,%s,%s,%s',
        $this->table,
        $this->column,
        $this->ignore ?: 'NULL',
        $this->idColumn,
        $this->formatWheres()
    ), ',');
}

---

In Laravel 8.x you can use Rule::unique method as well

Forcing A Unique Rule To Ignore A Given ID:

use Illuminate\Validation\Rule;

public function update(Request $request, Post $post)
{
    $validatedData = $request->validate([
        'name' => ['required', 'max:60', Rule::unique('posts')->ignore($post->id)],
    ]);

    $post->update($validatedData);
    
    return redirect(route('posts.index'))->with('status', 'post updated successfully');
}

---

Do One step in controller

Works Fine with Laravel 9

$request->validate([
        'name'=>'required|unique:categories,name,'.$id,
    ]);

---

Found the easiest way, working fine while I am using Laravel 5.2

public function rules()

{

switch ($this->method()) {
    case 'PUT':
        $rules = [
            'name'                  => 'required|min:3',
            'gender'                => 'required',
            'email'                 => 'required|email|unique:users,id,:id',
            'password'              => 'required|min:5',
            'password_confirmation' => 'required|min:5|same:password',
        ];
        break;

    default:
        $rules = [
            'name'                  => 'required|min:3',
            'gender'                => 'required',
            'email'                 => 'required|email|unique:users',
            'password'              => 'required|min:5',
            'password_confirmation' => 'required|min:5|same:password',
        ];
        break;
}

return $rules;
}

---

Use for Laravel 6.0

use Illuminate\Validation\Rule;

public function update(Request $request, $id)
    {
        // Form validation
        $request->validate([
            'category_name'   =>  [
                'required',
                'max:255',
                 Rule::unique('categories')->ignore($id),
            ]
        ]);
}

---

You can also use model classpath, if you don't want to hard code the table name.

function rules(){
    return [
        'email' => ['required','string',
         Rule::unique(User::class,'email')->ignore($this->id)]
    ];
}

Here $this->id is either 0 or the record Id to be updated.

---

This is what I ended up doing. I'm sure there is a more efficient way of doing this but this is what i came up with.

Model/User.php

protected $rules = [
    'email_address' => 'sometimes|required|email|unique:users,email_address, {{$id}}',
];

Model/BaseModel.php

public function validate($data, $id = null) {


      $rules = $this->$rules_string;

     //let's loop through and explode the validation rules
     foreach($rules as $keys => $value) {

        $validations = explode('|', $value);

        foreach($validations as $key=>$value) {

            // Seearch for {{$id}} and replace it with $id
            $validations[$key] = str_replace('{{$id}}', $id, $value);

        }
        //Let's create the pipe seperator 
        $implode = implode("|", $validations);
        $rules[$keys] = $implode;

     }
     ....

  }

I pass the $user_id to the validation in the controller

Controller/UserController.php

public function update($id) { 

   .....

    $user = User::find($user_id);

    if($user->validate($formRequest, $user_id)) {
      //validation succcess 
    } 

    ....


}

---

While updating any Existing Data Write validator as following:

'email' => ['required','email', Rule::unique('users')->ignore($user->id)]

This will skip/ignore existing user's id's unique value matching for the specific column.

---

Test below code:

$validator = Validator::make(
            array(
              'E-mail'=>$request['email'],
             ),
            array(
              'E-mail' => 'required|email|unique:users,email,'.$request['id'],
             ));

---

After researching a lot on this laravel validation topic including unique column, finally got the best approach. Please have a look

In your controller

    use Illuminate\Http\Request;
    use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Validator;

    class UserController extends Controller
    {
         public function saveUser(Request $request){
                $validator = Validator::make($request->all(),User::rules($request->get('id')),User::$messages);
                if($validator->fails()){
                    return redirect()->back()->withErrors($validator)->withInput();
                }
            }
    }

saveUser method can be called for add/update user record.

In you model

class User extends Model
{
    public static function rules($id = null)
    {
        return [
            'email_address' => 'required|email|unique:users,email_address,'.$id,
            'first_name' => "required",
            'last_name' => "required",
            'password' => "required|min:6|same:password_confirm",
            'password_confirm' => "required:min:6|same:password",
            'password_current' => "required:min:6"
        ];
    }
    public static $messages = [
        'email_address.required' => 'Please enter email!',
        'email_address.email' => 'Invalid email!',
        'email_address.unique' => 'Email already exist!',
        ...
    ];
}

---

Very easy to do it ,

Write it at your controller

$this->validate($request,[
     'email'=>['required',Rule::unique('yourTableName')->ignore($request->id)]
]);
Note : Rule::unique('yourTableName')->ignore($idParameter) , here $idParameter you can receive from get url also you can get it from hidden field.
Most important is don't forget to import Rule at the top.

---

If a login user want to update the email then auth() helper function will give us the login user id auth()->user()->id

Laravel helpers#method-auth

   Validator::make($data, [
'email' => [
    'required',
    Rule::unique('users')->ignore(auth()->user()->id),
],

]);

if Admin want to change the specific user information from User list then validation will be like this :

 Validator::make($data, [
'email' => [
    'required',
    Rule::unique('users')->ignore($request->user),
],

Laravel validation#rule-unique

$request object contain the current route related model objects. Which gives the model.

Try dd($request)

---

My solution:

$rules = $user->isDirty('email') ? \User::$rules : array_except(\User::$rules, 'email');

Then in validation:

$validator = \Validator::make(\Input::all(), $rules, \User::$messages);

The logic is if the email address in the form is different, we need to validated it, if the email hasn't changed, we don't need to validate, so remove that rule from validation.

---

For unique rule in the controller - which obviously will be different for the store method and the update method, I usually make a function within the controller for rules which will return an array of rules.

protected function rules($request)
{
    $commonRules = [
        'first_name' => "required",
        'last_name' => "required",
        'password' => "required|min:6|same:password_confirm",
        'password_confirm' => "required:min:6|same:password",
        'password_current' => "required:min:6"
    ];

    $uniqueRules = $request->id

          //update
        ? ['email_address' => ['required', 'email', 'unique:users,email' . $request->get('id')]]

          //store
        : ['email_address' => ['required', 'email', 'unique:users,email']];


    return array_merge($commonRules, $uinqueRules);
}

Then in the respective store and update methods

$validatedData = $request->validate($this->rules($request));

This saves from defining two different rule sets for store and update methods.

If you can afford to compromise a bit on readability, it can also be

protected function rules($request)
{
    return [
        'first_name' => "required",
        'last_name' => "required",
        'password' => "required|min:6|same:password_confirm",
        'password_confirm' => "required:min:6|same:password",
        'password_current' => "required:min:6",
        'email_address' => ['required', 'email', 'unique:users,email' . $request->id ?: null]
    ];
}

---

I read the previous post, but none approach the real problem. We need use the rule unique to apply on add and edit case. I use this rule on edit and add case and work fine.

In my solution i use rule function from Request Class.

I sent id over hidden input form field on edit form. On the Rule function, we find by unique column and get the record. Now evaluate the situation. If exist record and id are equal the unique must be not activate (that's mean edit record).

On the code:

public function rules()
    {
        //
        $user = User::where('email', $this->email)->first();
        //
        $this->id = isset($this->id) ? $this->id : null;
        $emailRule = (($user != null) && ($user->id == $this->id)) ? 'required|email:rfc,dns|max:255' : 'required|unique:users|email:rfc,dns|max:255';
        //        
        return [
            //
            'email'            =>  $emailRule,                
            //
        ];
        //


    }

---

Since you will want to ignore the record you are updating when performing an update, you will want to use ignore as mentioned by some others. But I prefer to receive an instance of the User rather then just an ID. This method will also allow you to do the same for other models

Controller

    public function update(UserRequest $request, User $user)
    {
        $user->update($request->all());

        return back();
    }

UserRequest

    public function rules()
    {
        return [
            'email' => [
                'required',
                \Illuminate\Validation\Rule::unique('users')->ignoreModel($this->route('user')),
            ],
        ];
    }

update: use ignoreModel in stead of ignore

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