这取决于您是想在之后使用用户，还是只检查是否存在一个用户。

如果用户对象存在，你想使用它:

$user = User::where('email', '=', Input::get('email'))->first();
if ($user === null) {
   // user doesn't exist
}

如果你只是想检查一下

if (User::where('email', '=', Input::get('email'))->count() > 0) {
   // user found
}

或者更好

if (User::where('email', '=', Input::get('email'))->exists()) {
   // user found
}

简单，舒适和易于理解的Validator

class CustomerController extends Controller
{
    public function register(Request $request)
    {

        $validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [
            'name' => 'required|string|max:255',
            'email' => 'required|string|email|max:255|unique:customers',
            'phone' => 'required|string|max:255|unique:customers',
            'password' => 'required|string|min:6|confirmed',
        ]);

        if ($validator->fails()) {
            return response(['errors' => $validator->errors()->all()], 422);
        }

在你的控制器中

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

在您的视图-显示已经存在的消息

@if (count($errors) > 0)
    <div class="alert alert-danger">
        <ul>
            @foreach ($errors->all() as $error)
                <li>{{ $error }}</li>
            @endforeach
        </ul>
    </div>
@endif

if (User::where('email', Input::get('email'))->exists()) {
    // exists
}

这是一个简单的代码来检查电子邮件是否存在数据库

    $data = $request->all();
    $user = DB::table('User')->pluck('email')->toArray();
    if(in_array($user,$data['email']))
    {
    echo 'existed email';
    }

if($user->isEmpty()){
    // has no records
}

Eloquent使用集合。 参见以下链接:https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/eloquent-collections