Accessing an unset Optional parameter.

[mgsmus]

Hello,

First of all, thanks for the great package!

When I try to access an unset Optional property directly, it gives me Optional, but I want it to be null. How can I do that?

class UserData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public int $id,
        public string $name,
        public string|Optional $occupation;
    )
    {
    }
}

$userData = UserData::from([
    'id' => 1,
    'name' => 'John Doe',
])

Here, the occupation field should not be in the array anyway, so there is no problem here:

$userData = $userData->toArray();

{
    "id": 1,
    "name": "John Doe"
}

but here the value is returning Spatie\LaravelData\Optional instead of null

$userData->occupation; // returns an instance of Spatie\LaravelData\Optional

What I want is for the occupation field to return null. How can I do this with only the features provided by the package? I've wrote a method myself to do this but I'm just wondering if it can be done with the features provided by the package:

public function getOptional(string $property, mixed $default = null): mixed
{
    if ($this->{$property} instanceof Optional) {
        return $default ?: null;
    }

    return $this->{$property};
}

$userData->getOptional('occupation'); // null

[Nir-An]

Hi @mgsmus

if you add ? to type is answered your question?

class UserData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public int $id,
        public string $name,
     // public string|Optional $occupation;
        public ?string $occupation; // null by default

    )
    {
    }
}

[mgsmus]

Unfortunately no because if I do it this way, whether I set the occupation field or not, when I convert it to an array, it adds it to the output

$userData = UserData::from([
    'id' => 1,
    'name' => 'John Doe',
])->toArray();

{
    "id": 1,
    "name": "John Doe"
    "occupation": null
}

I don't want the occupation property if I haven't set in the first place.

[Nir-An]

Unfortunately no because if I do it this way, whether I set the occupation field or not, when I convert it to an array, it adds it to the output

$userData = UserData::from([
    'id' => 1,
    'name' => 'John Doe',
])->toArray();

{
    "id": 1,
    "name": "John Doe"
    "occupation": null
}

I don't want the occupation property if I haven't set in the first place.

for this situation we have Conditional Lazy properties :

class UserData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public int $id,
        public string $name,
     // public string|Optional $occupation;
     // public ?string $occupation; // null by default 
        public Lazy|string $occupation; // appears only if not null due to Lazy::when
    )
    {
    }

   public static function fromModel(User $user): self
    {
        return new self(
            id: $user->id,
            name: $user->name,
            occupation: Lazy::when(fn() => $user->occupation !== null, fn() => $user->occupation),
        );
    }

   public static function fromArray(array $userArr): self
    {
        return new self(
            id: $userArr['id'],
            name: $userArr['name'],
            occupation: Lazy::when(fn() => $userArr['occupation'] !== null, fn() => $userArr['occupation'),
        );
    }
}

[mgsmus]

@Nir-An public string|null|Optional $occupation instead of public ?string $occupation fixed half of the problem.

[mgsmus]

I got ConditionalLazy instead of Optional. It seems I'll stick to my getOptional method for now. Thank you for your time! @Nir-An