Laravel: conditional validation rules - laravel

Question

In my laravel application I need to apply the validation rules on conditional bases. For example: In the Store method the password field is required and min chars: 6. But, in Update method password field is not required, however, if the user enters the password then it must be greater than 6 chars.
SomeController.php
private function validations($customRules = [])
{
# variables
$rules = [
'contact_person' => 'required|min:2',
'mobile_number' => 'required|numeric',
'pword' => 'required|min:6',
'email' => 'required|email',
'address' => 'required',
'status' => 'required',
];
$messages = [
'contact_person.required' => '`<strong class="style-underline">Contact person</strong>` - Required',
'contact_person.min' => '`<strong class="style-underline">Contact person</strong>` - Must be at least :min chars',
'mobile_number.required' => '`<strong class="style-underline">Mobile number</strong>` - Required',
'mobile_number.numeric' => '`<strong class="style-underline">Mobile number</strong>` - Must be a numeric value',
'email.required' => '`<strong class="style-underline">Eamil</strong>` - Required',
'email.email' => '`<strong class="style-underline">Email</strong>` - Must be a valid email address',
'pword.required' => '`<strong class="style-underline">Password</strong>` - Required',
'pword.min' => '`<strong class="style-underline">Password</strong>` - Must have a at least :min characters',
'status.required' => '`<strong class="style-underline">Status</strong>` - Required',
];
if(!empty($customRules))
$rules = \array_merge($rules, $customRules);
# returning
return request()->validate($rules, $messages);
}
After modifying the rules, based on the update method requirement, the pword field is validated for min chars. Which should not happen as the field was left empty.
Currently I am forced to do this.
public function update()
{
...
# validating submitted data
if(!empty(request()->pword))
$this->validations([ 'pword' => 'min:6' ]);
else
$this->validations([ 'pword' => '' ]);
....
}

Answer 1

You can use nullabe instead required, Blank value converted as null if you are using eloquent, because of below middleware
\Illuminate\Foundation\Http\Middleware\ConvertEmptyStringsToNull::class,
So your method would be like
private function validations($request,$update = false){
$rules = [
'contact_person' => 'required|min:2',
'mobile_number' => 'required|numeric',
'pword' => 'nullable|min:6',
'email' => 'required|email',
'address' => 'required',
'status' => 'required',
];
}