Laravel Unique Validation With Soft Delete Example

I will explain step by step tutorial laravel unique validation with soft delete. let’s discuss about laravel unique validation with deleted at. let’s discuss about laravel soft delete unique validation. you can understand a concept of unique email with soft delete laravel. Here, Creating a basic example of laravel unique ignore soft delete.

Here, i would like to show you how to use unique validation with soft delete in laravel 6, laravel 7, laravel 8, laravel 9, laravel 10 and laravel 11 application. i will give you different way to adding unique validation with deleted_at column with your application. you can add unique validation at create time and also update time.

Sometime we need to add unique validation with soft delete for email, username etc. at that time if you check unique email or username then you have to write database query manually and do it using if condition. but laravel provide "unique" rule that will help to easily add unique validation.

you can also follow basic tutorial from scratch here: Laravel Form Validation Example.

Basically, you can create your own request class using bellow command:

Create Request Class:

php artisan make:request StoreUserRequest
php artisan make:request UpdateUserRequest

Now you can use it, in your controller as like bellow:

Controller File Code:

<?php
 
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
  
use App\Http\Requests\StoreUserRequest;
use App\Http\Requests\UpdateUserRequest;
use App\User;
  
class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function store(StoreUserRequest $request)
    {
        /* Do Something */
    }
  
    public function update(UpdateUserRequest $request, User $user)
    {
        /* Do Something */
    }
}

Now you can see bellow solution one by one and you can use anyone that you require for unique validation.

Example 1: Simple Unique Validation with Soft Delete

app/Http/Requests/StoreUserRequest.php

<?php
  
namespace App\Http\Requests;
  
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;
  
class StoreUserRequest extends FormRequest
{
    /**
     * Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    public function authorize()
    {
        return true;
    } 
  
    /**
     * Get the validation rules that apply to the request.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function rules()
    {
        return [
                'name' => 'required',
                'username' => 'required|min:8',
                'email'=>'required|email|unique:users,email,NULL,id,deleted_at,NULL'
            ];
    }
}

Example 2: Soft Delete Unique Validation with Rule

app/Http/Requests/StoreUserRequest.php

<?php
  
namespace App\Http\Requests;
  
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;
use Illuminate\Validation\Rule;
  
class StoreUserRequest extends FormRequest
{
    /**
     * Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    public function authorize()
    {
        return true;
    }
  
    /**
     * Get the validation rules that apply to the request.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function rules()
    {
        return [
                'name' => 'required',
                'username' => 'required|min:8',
                'email' => ['required', Rule::unique('users')->whereNull('deleted_at')]
            ];
    }
}

Example 3: Soft Delete Unique Validation with Update

app/Http/Requests/UpdateUserRequest.php

<?php
  
namespace App\Http\Requests;
  
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;
  
class UpdateUserRequest extends FormRequest
{
    /**
     * Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    public function authorize()
    {
        return false;
    }
  
    /**
     * Get the validation rules that apply to the request.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function rules()
    {
        return [
                'name' => 'required',
                'username' => 'required|min:8',
                'email'=> "required|email|unique:users,email,{$this->user->id},id,deleted_at,NULL"
            ];
    }
}

Example 4: Soft Delete Unique Validation with Update Rule

app/Http/Requests/UpdateUserRequest.php

<?php
  
namespace App\Http\Requests;
  
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;
  
class UpdateUserRequest extends FormRequest
{
    /**
     * Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.
     *
     * @return bool
     */
    public function authorize()
    {
        return false;
    }
  
    /**
     * Get the validation rules that apply to the request.
     *
     * @return array
     */
    public function rules()
    {
        return [
                'name' => 'required',
                'username' => 'required|min:8',
                'email' => ['required', Rule::unique('users')->ignore($this->user)->whereNull('deleted_at')]
            ];
    }
}

You can use anyone that you need.

I hope it can help you...