Mastering Data Management in Laravel: The Power of Upsert

Adrian Generous
3 min readJan 25, 2024

In the realm of Laravel, the upsert method stands out as a highly efficient way to manage large datasets. It uniquely combines the functionalities of inserting and updating records in a database, which is especially valuable in scenarios that require quick and efficient data handling.

Key Attributes of the Upsert Method

The upsert method in Laravel is characterized by three main parameters:

Array of Values: An array containing the records to be inserted or updated.
Unique By: The column or set of columns that determine the uniqueness of a record.
Update With: The columns that should be updated when an existing record is found.

When to Prefer Upsert Over Update

  1. Handling Bulk Data: When dealing with thousands of records, upsert significantly outperforms update in terms of speed. Instead of iterating over each record and deciding whether to insert or update, upsert handles this in a more streamlined and efficient manner.
  2. Preventing Duplicate Records: In scenarios where you need to ensure that no duplicate records are created, upsert is the ideal choice. It inherently checks for existing records based on the unique keys and updates them if found, else it inserts a new record.
  3. Optimizing Performance in Large Databases: In large-scale applications, where performance is…

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Adrian Generous

I navigate between coding & marketing, experienced as a CTO, project manager, & ad agency owner. I share Laravel & more on Medium, also a history enthusiast.