How to increment a column using Eloquent Model in Laravel 4 - laravel

Question

I am not sure how to increment the value in a column using Eloquent Model in Laravel 4?
This is what I currently have and I am not sure how correct is this.
$visitor = Visitor::where('token','=','sometoken')->first();
if(isset($visitor)){
$visitor->increment('totalvisits');
}else{
Visitor::create(array(
'token'=>'sometoken',
'totalvisits'=>0
));
}
With Query Builder we could do it using
DB::table('visitors')->increment('totalvisits');

Answer 1

Looks like the code that I posted worked after all
$visitor = Visitor::where('token','=','sometoken')->first();
if(isset($visitor)){
$visitor->increment('totalvisits');
}else{
Visitor::create(array(
'token'=>'sometoken',
'totalvisits'=>0
));
}

Answer 2

Prior to a fix a few weeks ago the increment method actually fell through to the query builder and would be called on the entire table, which was undesirable.
Now calling increment or decrement on a model instance will perform the operation only on that model instance.

Answer 3

Laravel 5 now has atomic increment:
public function increment($column, $amount = 1, array $extra = [])
{
if (! is_numeric($amount)) {
throw new InvalidArgumentException('Non-numeric value passed to increment method.');
}
$wrapped = $this->grammar->wrap($column);
$columns = array_merge([$column => $this->raw("$wrapped + $amount")], $extra);
return $this->update($columns);
}
which essentially works like:
Customer::query()
->where('id', $customer_id)
->update([
'loyalty_points' => DB::raw('loyalty_points + 1')
]);
Below is old answer for Laravel 4 where the built-in increment was a seperate select and then update which of course leads to bugs with multiple users:
If you'd like to accurately count your visitors by ensuring the update is atomic then try putting this in your Visitor model:
public function incrementTotalVisits(){
// increment regardless of the current value in this model.
$this->where('id', $this->id)->update(['totalVisits' => DB::raw('last_insert_id(totalVisits + 1)')]);
//update this model incase we would like to use it.
$this->totalVisits = DB::getPdo()->lastInsertId();
//remove from dirty list to prevent any saves overwriting the newer database value.
$this->syncOriginalAttribute('totalVisits');
//return it because why not
return $this->totalVisits;
}
I'm using it for a change tag system but might work for your needs too.
Does anyone know what to replace the "$this->where('id',$this->id)" with because since dealing with $this Visitor it should be redundant.