Eloquent - where not equal to

Use where with a != operator in combination with whereNull

Code::where('to_be_used_by_user_id', '!=' , 2)->orWhereNull('to_be_used_by_user_id')->get()

For where field not empty this worked for me:

->where('table_name.field_name', '<>', '')

While this seems to work

Code::query()
    ->where('to_be_used_by_user_id', '!=' , 2)
    ->orWhereNull('to_be_used_by_user_id')
    ->get();

you should not use it for big tables, because as a general rule "or" in your where clause is stopping query to use index. You are going from "Key lookup" to "full table scan"

enter image description here enter image description here

Instead, try Union

$first = Code::whereNull('to_be_used_by_user_id');

$code = Code::where('to_be_used_by_user_id', '!=' , 2)
        ->union($first)
        ->get();