How do I validate non-required fields in CodeIgniter? - codeigniter

Question

I'm building an API in CodeIgniter, and I'm having trouble with the validation for an UPDATE method. My table has 3 columns (plus id):
first_name
last_name
city
I'd like the client to be able to update any of the 3 columns, and apply validation rules (such as min_length[1]) to each one the client wants to update.
The issue is that if the client POSTs this:
first_name=Foo&last_name=
It skips validating last_name since CodeIgniter sees it as "empty" and it's not "required" by my validation. But then when active record attempts to UPDATE the record in MySQL, it sets last_name to "" (empty).
I don't want the fields to be required, but if they are set, they should have a minimum length.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Try this i am giving you an example for your scenario the fields which are not mandatory and for first time they has values that are stored in db and for second time user just sent blank any of the mandatory fields just unset that index in your to store in db so the previous value will remain in DB
$first_name=$this->input->post("first_name");
$last_name=$this->input->post("last_name");
$city=$this->input->post("city");
$data = array(
'first_name' => $first_name,
'last_name' => $last_name,
'city' => $city
);
if(empty($last_name)){
unset($data['last_name'])
}
if(empty($city)){
unset($data['city'])
}
$this->db->where('id', $id);
$this->db->update('mytable', $data);
Hope it makes sense