Gracefully handling missing arguments when using Laravel RESTful Controllers - php

Question

I am learning Laravel and have run into a problem handling missing arguments, which has also been explained here. However, the solution(s) focus primarily on named routes, but am using RESTful controllers.
TL;DR Is there some elegant solution to handle missing arguments on all of a given controller's methods without naming each one?
Route
Route::controller('accounts', 'AccountsController');
Controller
Here is a sample controller method...where the "example.com/accounts/profile/1" works, but "example.com/accounts/profile/" [with or without the trailing slash] will throw an exception. "ErrorException: Missing argument 1 for AccountsController::getProfile()"
public function getProfile($id)
{
$account = DB::table('accounts')->where('id', $id)->first();
$this->layout->content = View::make('account.profile', array('account' => $account));
}
One Attempted Solution (Doesn't work)
I've also tried this ↓ , which was a promising-looking suggestion from another question. However, it also does not work.
public function getProfile($id = NULL)
{
if ($id = NULL)
{
return Redirect::to('accounts');
} else {
$account = DB::table('accounts')->where('id', $id)->first();
$this->layout->content = View::make('account.profile', array('account' => $account));
}
}
Other Solution (Works, but is tedious)
I know that using named routes, such as the one below , to cover all of the holes will work, but this seems like such an un-elegant solution! (especially considering the suuuuper tedious process of naming all of the routes for all of the controllers that we are planning on using)
Route::get('/accounts/profile', 'AccountsController#missingMethod');
So....
What do you all think? Is there some elegant solution to handle missing arguments on all of a given controller's methods without naming each one?

Answer 1

The default parameter option should work aside from a minor and very commonly uncaught error in php.. You're using the assignment operator in your conditional. Use
if($id == NULL)
instead of
if($id = NULL)
or if you like
if(is_null($id) )
One of the tragedies of a dynamically typed language. Gets me more frequently than I care to admit.