Laravel 5.6 Validation on empty fields - laravel

Question

Somehow I feel like this should be a common question, but I can't seem to find a definite answer on that one.
The problem is quite simple:
On validating a form, I would like to exclude the empty non-required fields from the resulting array - and this in order to use the default value set at database level.
Since Laravel is using the ConvertEmptyStringsToNull middleware by default (and I am not so keen on changing that), it means that my empty fields will be converted to 'null' and sent to my database (hence not getting their default value, and actually breaking the query since those fields are not nullable at database level).
$userData = $request->validate([
'email' => 'required|string|email|max:255|unique:users',
'number_of_whatever' => //if this field is empty, I want it stripped out the $userData array - or automatically default to the database default
]);
Any help on how to solve this in the cleanest way possible would be much appreciated! I was thinking about making a custom rule that would exclude the field itself (so I could reuse this validation rule across the project without having to manually do it every time we come across the situation).
Another option would be to set it at Model level - but not so keen on doing that, it seems weird to have to do it there when it's already done at DB level.
Thanks!

Answer 1

i think you can use nullable rule
$userData = $request->validate([
'email' => 'required|string|email|max:255|unique:users',
'number_of_whatever' => 'nullable'
]);

Answer 2

Hey so i've found your issue and also a sort of work around for this. Based on the below example i've replicated and now understood your issue properly, even if the validator allows null values the create method throws an error and does not set default values.
Controller
$validator = Validator::make($data, [
'name' => 'max:255',
'email' => 'max:255',
'password' => 'max:255',
]);
if ($validator->fails()) {
dd('Validator has failed');
}
// This throws an error saying that the fields cannot be null!
User::create($data);
Users Table
Schema::create('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->increments('id');
$table->string('name')->default('Ken');
$table->string('email')->default('ken#stackoverflow.com');
$table->string('password')->default(bcrypt('password'));
$table->rememberToken();
$table->timestamps();
});
The work around i've devised is this, remove all null values from the post request before it hits the validator like so.
Example
$data = ['name' => null, 'email' => null, 'password' => null];
foreach($data as $key => $value)
{
if($value == null)
{
unset($data[$key]);
}
}
The logic here is by removing the fields from the post request that are null, the USER object does not see them as having a value, therefore allowing the tables default values to table place, but if the value is null this is still deemed as a value so the default value will be ignored.
I hope this makes sense.
Result of my full code

Answer 3

Create a FormRequest and filter out the null values using the prepareForValidation method:
namespace App\Http\Requests;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;
class TestRequest extends FormRequest
{
public function authorize()
{
return true;
}
public function rules()
{
return
[
'username' => 'required|string|email|max:255|unique:users',
'number_of_whatever' => 'sometimes|integer',
];
}
protected function prepareForValidation()
{
if($this->number_of_whatever == null) {
$this->request->remove('number_of_whatever');
}
}
}
You can apply any validation other than 'required' after the 'sometimes' rule and will be applied only if the value isn't null.