How to Use Destroy Method in Eloquent for Deleting Records

In Laravel Eloquent, use the destroy method to delete one or more records by their primary key(s). You can pass a single ID, multiple IDs as arguments, or an array of IDs to destroy, and it will remove those records from the database.

Syntax

The destroy method is called on an Eloquent model and accepts one or more primary key values to delete the corresponding records.

• Model::destroy($id) - deletes a single record by ID.
• Model::destroy($id1, $id2, ...) - deletes multiple records by IDs.
• Model::destroy([$id1, $id2, ...]) - deletes multiple records using an array of IDs.

php

Model::destroy(1);
Model::destroy(1, 2, 3);
Model::destroy([4, 5, 6]);

Example

This example shows how to delete a single user by ID and multiple users by passing an array of IDs using the destroy method.

php

<?php
use App\Models\User;

// Delete a single user with ID 1
User::destroy(1);

// Delete multiple users with IDs 2, 3, and 4
User::destroy([2, 3, 4]);

Output

Records with IDs 1, 2, 3, and 4 are deleted from the users table.

Common Pitfalls

1. Passing non-existent IDs: If you pass IDs that do not exist, destroy will simply ignore them without error.

2. Forgetting to import the model: Always import your Eloquent model with use before calling destroy.

3. Using destroy on model instances: destroy is a static method and expects IDs, not model objects. To delete a model instance, use $model->delete().

php

<?php
use App\Models\User;

// Wrong: Passing model instance instead of ID
$user = User::find(1);
User::destroy($user); // This will not work as expected

// Right: Pass the ID
User::destroy($user->id);

Quick Reference

Usage	Description
Model::destroy(1);	Delete a single record by ID
Model::destroy(1, 2, 3);	Delete multiple records by IDs
Model::destroy([4, 5, 6]);	Delete multiple records using an array of IDs
$model->delete();	Delete a single model instance

Key Takeaways

Use destroy to delete records by their primary key(s) directly on the model.

destroy accepts single IDs, multiple IDs as arguments, or an array of IDs.

Do not pass model instances to destroy; use delete() on instances instead.

Passing non-existent IDs to destroy does not cause errors; those IDs are ignored.

Always import your model class before calling destroy to avoid errors.