Here is a workaround, but I am not sure if it is the standard way to do it, anyways:

//deleting a user who has a toy :)
Toy::find($toyId)->user()->newPivotStatementForId(Auth::id())->whereStatus(0)->delete();

//deleting a user who wants a toy :(
Toy::find($toyId)->user()->newPivotStatementForId(Auth::id())->whereStatus(1)->delete();

Regards,

Thank you for your response. I ended up using...

DB::delete('delete from toy_user where toy_id = ? AND user_id = ? AND status = 0', array($toy->id,Auth::id()));

Having to write plain SQL statements in an Eloquent based app seems a bit awkward for me. Having had a similar problem I would suggest:

• create a model UsersToys which has many-to-one relationships to User and Toy
• delete the records using something like:

    foreach ($myToy->users as $u) {
        if ($u->pivot->status == 1) {
            $ut = UsersToys::find($u->pivot->id);
            $ut->delete();
        }
    }

Pros:

• It keeps the code free from SQL.
• The additional model can be used elsewhere.

Cons:

• This is an awkward hack as well, mostly because
• It needs an additional model.

Deleting single records from a pivot table seems to be an overlooked (or maybe undocumented) feauture of Eloquent.

I just ran into this problem as well and had to write a DB raw query. I haven't tired the newPivotStatementForId method yet but I can't imagine it's that much better.

Imagine if you had another column called "given". Now you can 3 possible types of rows with the combination of user_id, toy_id, status = 0|1 and given = 0|1. If you wanted to delete where user_id = x, toy_id = y, and status = 1, give = 1 that method would not work.

What Eloquent really needs is a way to access the pivot via a surrogate key. I believe you may be able to do it via a custom pivot model but haven't tried.

Just send the ID of the related model you want to detach like:

\Auth::user()->favourites()->detach($ad->id);

To access the id of pivot table you need to add the 'id' in withPivot when defining the relations. And then make a new model for pivot table and delete the single entry of pivot using pivot id. Here is my code ##Resource.php public function resources() { return $this->belongsToMany( 'DispatchLoad', 'resource_schedule', 'resource_id', 'load_id' )->withPivot(['id', 'start_date', 'end_date'])->withTimestamps(); } ##DispatchLoad.php public function resources() { return $this->belongsToMany( 'Resource', 'resource_schedule', 'load_id', 'resource_id' )->withPivot(['id', 'start_date', 'end_date'])->withTimestamps(); } ##Repo public function detach( array $input ) { return ResoureSchedule::find($input['pivot_id'])->delete(); //the pivot_id is set is passed from the form in a view, where all entries // of pivot tables are listed, when user clicks a row I take the pivot id // and submit the delete form }