Laravel Unique Validation on Update: A Complete Guide

When working with forms in Laravel, ensuring unique data integrity is crucial—especially when updating existing records. A common challenge is applying unique validation rules while excluding the current record from checks.

In this blog, we’ll explore:
✅ How Laravel’s unique rule works
✅ Ignoring the current record in updates
✅ Handling edge cases (soft deletes, composite keys)
✅ Best practices for form validation

1. Basic Unique Validation in Laravel

Laravel provides a built-in unique validation rule to ensure a field’s value doesn’t already exist in a database table.

Example: Unique Email on User Creation

use Illuminate\Validation\Rule;

$request->validate([
    'email' => 'required|email|unique:users,email',
]);

This ensures no other user has the same email.

2. Unique Validation on Update

When updating a record, we must exclude the current record from uniqueness checks.

Solution: Rule::unique()->ignore()

Laravel’s Rule::unique method allows ignoring a specific record:

use Illuminate\Validation\Rule;

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

Here, $user->id ensures the current user’s email is not checked for uniqueness.

3. Specifying a Custom Column for ignore()

If your primary key is not id, specify it:

Rule::unique('users')->ignore($user->uuid, 'uuid')

4. Handling Soft Deletes

If your model uses soft deletes, the unique rule will still check deleted records. To exclude them:

Rule::unique('users')->whereNull('deleted_at')->ignore($user->id)

5. Advanced: Composite Unique Keys

For multi-column uniqueness (e.g., slug + company_id), use:

Rule::unique('posts')->where(function ($query) {
    return $query->where('company_id', $this->company_id);
})->ignore($post->id)

6. Best Practices

A. Use Form Request Validation

For cleaner code, move validation logic into a Form Request:

php artisan make:request UpdateUserRequest

Then define rules in rules():

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

B. Avoid Hardcoding IDs

Instead of $request->route('user'), use implicit model binding:

// In your route
Route::put('/users/{user}', [UserController::class, 'update']);

// In your controller
public function update(User $user, UpdateUserRequest $request)
{
    $user->update($request->validated());
}

C. Handle Race Conditions

If multiple requests update the same record simultaneously, use database-level constraints (UNIQUE index) for absolute safety.

7. Common Pitfalls & Fixes

❌ Problem: ignore() not working

• Cause: Missing use Illuminate\Validation\Rule;
• Fix: Import the Rule facade.

❌ Problem: Wrong ID being ignored

• Cause: Passing the wrong model instance.
• Fix: Ensure $user->id matches the record being updated.

❌ Problem: Unique rule still checks deleted records

• Cause: Forgetting whereNull('deleted_at') in soft-delete scenarios.
• Fix: Add the condition explicitly.

Conclusion

Laravel’s Rule::unique()->ignore() provides an elegant way to enforce uniqueness while updating records. By combining it with Form Requests, implicit model binding, and database constraints, you can ensure data integrity without compromising flexibility.

Key Takeaways

✔ Use Rule::unique()->ignore($id) for updates.
✔ Specify custom columns if the primary key isn’t id.
✔ Handle soft deletes with whereNull('deleted_at').
✔ For complex cases, use composite unique checks.
✔ Prefer Form Requests for maintainable validation.

By following these best practices, you can avoid duplicate data issues while keeping your Laravel application clean and efficient.

🚀 Need help implementing this? Drop a comment below!