Laravel soft deletes: delete, restore and query trashed records

PHP Dasun Kalupahana November 2, 2026 50 views

<?php

// migration
$table->softDeletes();

// model
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\SoftDeletes;

class Post extends Model
{
    use SoftDeletes;
}

// usage
$post->delete();                 // sets deleted_at
Post::withTrashed()->get();      // include deleted
Post::onlyTrashed()->restore();  // restore deleted
$post->forceDelete();            // remove permanently

Marks a row as deleted instead of removing it, so you can restore it later. withTrashed() and onlyTrashed() let you query deleted rows.

#laravel #eloquent #soft-deletes #models #database