How to ignore a validation rule if a field is null?

Question

I have these rules for 2 dates. But I want the before_or_equal rule to be followed only when retired_on date has been inputted. How do I do this? sometimes doesn't solve this problem. If there is no input on retired_on date, one has to be able to input entered_on without any errors. With these 2 rules, an error appears right at the beginning since retired_on default is blank.

'entered_on' => 'required|date_format:Y/m/d|before_or_equal:retired_on',
'retired_on' => 'date_format:Y/m/d|after_or_equal:entered_on',

I'm using Laravel 5.1. The nullable rule does not exist in this version. What am I to do? I can't upgrade as this is a job not a personal project. — Lorenz, Aug 09 '19 at 05:06

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 09 '19 at 03:08

2

Use the nullable rule:

'retired_on' => 'nullable|date_format:Y/m/d|after_or_equal:entered_on',

answered Aug 09 '19 at 03:08

Joseph Silber

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I added the nullable rule and what happens is that "Whoops, looks like something went wrong." is now always displayed. – Lorenz Aug 09 '19 at 04:09
@Lorenz are you sure retired_on in database is nullable already ? :) – Ghiffari Assamar Aug 09 '19 at 04:10
I took a look at the migrations and yes retired_on is nullable together with entered_on. – Lorenz Aug 09 '19 at 04:14
BTW, I'm using Laravel 5.1 and the after_or_equal and before_or_equal I'm using is from a customized Validator. – Lorenz Aug 09 '19 at 04:18
1

I was looking at Laravel 5.1 tutorial and there is indeed no nullable rule. It appears I can't use the nullable rule. Is there a way to do this? – Lorenz Aug 09 '19 at 04:42
Update your Laravel version. – Rob Aug 09 '19 at 05:48

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 09 '19 at 07:18

Since you say you can't use nullable or upgrade the Laravel version, you could always separate it out and validate for that field conditionally.

// your other input validations
$this->validate($request, [
    'entered_on' => 'required|date_format:Y/m/d|before_or_equal:retired_on',
]);

// only validate 'retired_on' if it exists and is not null
if ($request->has('retired_on') && !is_null($request->input('retired_on'))) {
    // pre-check passed, do validation
    $this->validate($request, [
        'retired_on' => 'date_format:Y/m/d|after_or_equal:entered_on',
    ]);
}

Thank you for taking the time to write the code! Much appreciation. — Lorenz, Aug 09 '19 at 08:00

How to ignore a validation rule if a field is null?

2 Answers2