Find or Create with Eloquent

Find or New based on primary key id

$user = User::findOrNew($id); // if exist then update else insert
$user->name= $data['full_name'];
$user->save();

First or New based on non-primary key single filed

// get the record where field_name=value else insert new record
$user = User::firstOrNew(['field_name'=>'value']); 
$user->name= $data['full_name'];
$user->save();

First or New based on non-primary key multiple filed

// get the record where field_name1=value1 and field_name2=value2, else insert new record
$user = User::firstOrNew(['field_name1'=>'value1','field_name2'=>'value2']);
$user->name= $data['full_name'];
$user->save();

Below is the original accepted answer for: Laravel-4

There is already a method findOrFail available in Laravel and when this method is used it throws ModelNotFoundException on fail but in your case you can do it by creating a method in your model, for example, if you have a User model then you just put this function in the model

// Put this in any model and use
// Modelname::findOrCreate($id);
public static function findOrCreate($id)
{
    $obj = static::find($id);
    return $obj ?: new static;
}

From your controller, you can use

$user =  User::findOrCreate(5);
$user->first_name = 'John';
$user->last_name = 'Doe';
$user->save();

If a user with id of 5 exists, then it'll be updated, otherwise a new user will be created but the id will be last_user_id + 1 (auto incremented).

This is another way to do the same thing:

public function scopeFindOrCreate($query, $id)
{
    $obj = $query->find($id);
    return $obj ?: new static;
}

Instead of creating a static method, you can use a scope in the Model, so the method in the Model will be scopeMethodName and call Model::methodName(), same as you did in the static method, for example

$user =  User::findOrCreate(5);

Update:

The firstOrCreate is available in Laravel 5x, the answer is too old and it was given for Laravel-4.0 in 2013.

In Laravel 5.3, the firstOrCreate method has the following declaration:

public function firstOrCreate(array $attributes, array $values = [])

Which means you can use it like this:

User::firstOrCreate(['email' => $email], ['name' => $name]);

User's existence will be only checked via email, but when created, the new record will save both email and name.

API Docs

Alternatively, in this case you can also use Laravel's function and search for id as an attribute, i.e.

$user = User::firstOrCreate(['id' => $id]);