FirstOrCreate making duplicates - laravel

Question

In Laravel I'm running the following
PlateOrder::firstOrCreate(
['internal_order' => $internalOrder],
['internal_order' => $internalOrder,
'order_number' => $order->order_number, 'product' => $line_item->name,
'img_url' => $plate->template, 'template' => 1,
'order_date' => $fixedDate,
'qty' => $line_item->quantity,
'custom1' => $firstLineTrimmed,
'custom2' => $secondLineTrimmed,
'created_at' => $order->created_at,
'r' => $plate->r, 'g' => $plate->g, 'b' => $plate->b,
'spacing' => $plate->spacing, 'top' => $plate->top ]
);
Using firstOrCreate the first parameter internal_order will check if it exists. If it exists it'll update it if it doesn't it should create it.
However in my database it's causing it to write duplicates.
84826 142544 1425441HIGHMARK2 08-25-2020 HIGHMARK VINYLS NULL NULL Colorado Plate Hat - Flex Fit / L/XL (7 1/4" - 7 5/8") / Black FF prt_Colorado.ai NULL 2 NULL 2020-08-25T05:47:14-07:00 1 0 77 41 38 86
84827 142544 1425441HIGHMARK2 08-25-2020 HIGHMARK VINYLS NULL NULL Colorado Plate Hat - Flex Fit / L/XL (7 1/4" - 7 5/8") / Black FF prt_Colorado.ai NULL 2 NULL 2020-08-25T05:47:14-07:00 1 0 77 41 38 86
It creates an identical record except for the id. Is this a bug or am I missing something?

Answer 1

Thanks to #Derek Pollard, I dug into this and it indeed is a mysql race condition.
To fix this I ended up making internal_order column a unique id. Any attempt to create a double will error out.
Here are some references to:
https://github.com/spatie/first-or-create-racing-condition-demo
https://gist.github.com/troatie/def0fba42fcfb70f873b7f033fbe255f

Answer 2

If you want the record to be updated if it doesn't already exist you should use updateOrCreate as firstOrCreate will not update the existing record but rather will return it. As for it inserting the duplicate records, it must not be finding the record that has the same internal_order value. Is it possible that there is trailing or leading whitespace in the existing entry that is causing it not to be found? Also, there is no reason to repeat the internal_order values in the second array as it will use the values provided in the first array automagically.
PlateOrder::updateOrCreate(
['internal_order' => $internalOrder],
[
'order_number' => $order->order_number,
'product' => $line_item->name,
'img_url' => $plate->template,
'template' => 1,
'order_date' => $fixedDate,
'qty' => $line_item->quantity,
'custom1' => $firstLineTrimmed,
'custom2' => $secondLineTrimmed,
'created_at' => $order->created_at,
'r' => $plate->r,
'g' => $plate->g,
'b' => $plate->b,
'spacing' => $plate->spacing,
'top' => $plate->top ]
);