How to connect controller eloquent's - laravel

Question

I don't know if my question title is correct but I will try to form the question here correctly.
So I am creating order and customer management system in laravel and I am struggling with connecting two tables and controllers with each other.
I have two tables:
orders table with one test record
customers table with one test record
Also I have controller "OrdersController" with store function here is a source code:
public function store(Request $request)
{
$this->validate($request, [
'customer'=>'required',
'date'=>'required',
'products'=>'required',
'phone'=>'required',
'country'=>'required',
'state'=>'required',
'city'=>'required',
'address1'=>'required',
'address2'=>'required',
'zip'=>'required',
'sold_price'=>'required',
'gross_price'=>'required',
'paypal_fee'=>'required',
'track_number'=>'required',
'track_price'=>'required',
'track_link'=>'required',
'currency'=>'required'
]);
$order = new Order;
$order->customer = $request->input('customer');
$order->date = $request->input('date');
$order->products = $request->input('products');
$order->phone = $request->input('phone');
$order->country = $request->input('country');
$order->state = $request->input('state');
$order->city = $request->input('city');
$order->address1 = $request->input('address1');
$order->address2 = $request->input('address2');
$order->zip = $request->input('zip');
$order->sold_price = $request->input('sold_price');
$order->gross_price = $request->input('gross_price');
$order->paypal_fee = $request->input('paypal_fee');
$order->track_number = $request->input('track_number');
$order->track_price = $request->input('track_price');
$order->track_link = $request->input('track_link');
$order->currency = $request->input('currency');
$order->save();
return redirect('/orders')->with('success', 'შეკვეთა წარმატებით დაემატა');
}
So I want to check if record with $order->phone exists in customers table, if it exists don't create new record in customers table, and if it not exists I want to create new record in customers table with $order->customer (customer's name) and $order->phone (customer's phone).
This is my questions, I am a beginner and this is my first project, if here is some fatal mistakes please tell me. Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

First check in customer table with phone number record exist or not like this. I assume that your customer model is Customer
$customer = Customer::where('phone', '=', $request->input('phone'))->first();
if(!$customer){
create Customer here
}
$order = new Order;
$order->customer = $request->input('customer');
$order->date = $request->input('date');
$order->products = $request->input('products');
$order->phone = $request->input('phone');
$order->country = $request->input('country');
$order->state = $request->input('state');
$order->city = $request->input('city');
$order->address1 = $request->input('address1');
$order->address2 = $request->input('address2');
$order->zip = $request->input('zip');
$order->sold_price = $request->input('sold_price');
$order->gross_price = $request->input('gross_price');
$order->paypal_fee = $request->input('paypal_fee');
$order->track_number = $request->input('track_number');
$order->track_price = $request->input('track_price');
$order->track_link = $request->input('track_link');
$order->currency = $request->input('currency');
$order->save();
return redirect('/orders')->with('success', 'შეკვეთა წარმატებით დაემატა');