Laravel validating required at least one element in array - php

Question

I am trying to post the following data to an endpoint built up on Laravel.
{
"category": "2",
"title": "my text goes here",
"difficulty": 1,
"correct": {
"id": "NULL",
"text": "Correct"
},
"wrong": [
{
"id": "NULL",
"text": ""
},
{
"id": "NULL",
"text": ""
},
{
"id": "NULL",
"text": ""
}
]
}
and I have the following validation rules.
return [
'correct' => 'required|array',
'correct.text' => 'required',
'wrong' => 'required|array|between:1,3'
];
What I am trying to accomplish is the wrong should be and array and it should contain at least one element and should not exceed 3. Now these rules are satisfying, but there is one more case I need to take care and that is the validation of the text in wrong . With the current rules, if I post the above data, it will accept as there is no rule in place for the text in the wrong section. Which rule I need to add to validate that the wrong section at least contains one entry with a not empty text.

Answer 1

tl;dr
If you have very specific needs for a validator rule, you can always create your own.
Create a Custom Validator
The scheme will be: properties_filled:propertyName:minimumOccurence. This rule will check if the field under validation:
Is an array.
Its elements have at least minimumOccurence amounts of non empty (!== '') values among element properties called propertyName.
In your app/Providers/AppServiceProvider.php file's boot method, you can add the custom rule implementation:
public function boot()
{
Validator::extend('properties_filled', function ($attribute, $value, $parameters, $validator) {
$validatedProperty = $parameters[0];
$minimumOccurrence = $parameters[1];
if (is_array($value)) {
$validElementCount = 0;
$valueCount = count($value);
for ($i = 0; $i < $valueCount; ++$i) {
if ($value[$i][$validatedProperty] !== '') {
++$validElementCount;
}
}
} else {
return false;
}
return $validElementCount >= $minimumOccurrence;
});
}
Then you can use it in your validation like this:
return [
'correct' => 'required|array',
'correct.text' => 'required',
'wrong' => 'required|between:1,3|properties_filled:text,1'
];
Testing
Note: I assumed that you parse your JSON data with json_decode's $assoc parameter set to true. If you use an object then change the $value[$i][$validatedProperty] !== '' in the condition to: $value[$i]->{$validatedProperty} !== ''.
Here is my example test:
$data = json_decode('{"category":"2","title":"mytextgoeshere","difficulty":1,"correct":{"id":"NULL","text":"Correct"},"wrong":[{"id":"NULL","text":""},{"id":"NULL","text":""},{"id":"NULL","text":""}]}', true);
$validator = Validator::make($data, [
'correct' => 'required|array',
'correct.text' => 'required',
'wrong' => 'required|between:1,3|properties_filled:text,1'
]);
$validator->fails();

Answer 2

Take advantage of the validation rule in
EDIT: I assume that wrong will have a specific value, therefore pass that value in this way
return [
'correct' => 'required|array',
'correct.text' => 'required',
'wrong' => 'required|array|between:1,3',
'wrong.text' => 'sometimes|min:1|in:somevalue,someothervalue',
];
The sometimes validation makes sure that field is checked only if exists. To check that there will be at least
I'm not sure, but does min suffice to your request? Otherwise you have to write a custom validation rule as someone else suggested

Answer 3

I got the same issue while trying to validate an array on the API side. I made a solution. try this
$validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [
'target_user_ids' => 'required',
'target_user_ids.*' => 'present|exists:users,uuid|distinct',
]);
if ($validator->fails()) {
return response()->json([
'status' => false,
'error' => $validator->errors()->first(),
], 400);
}

Answer 4

If you want to validate input fields in array, you can define your rules like this:
return [
'correct' => 'required|array',
'correct.text' => 'required',
'wrong' => 'required|array|between:1,3',
'wrong.*.text' => 'required|string|min:1',
];