Empty value without Optional or ?

[dbpolito]

Current it seems there is no way to make a field optional without using the |Optional class... or the ? optional flag on property.

I would like to validate an empty array, so:

class Class extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public array $values,
    ) {
    }

I would like to change this to use present instead of required, but the#[Present] doesn't work, the required is still applied.

Changing to array|Optional works but then it will get optional object instead of empty array...

It there a better way to allow an empty array instead of overwriting rules?

    public static function rules(): array
    {
        return [
            'values' => ['array'],
        ];
    }

To be honest i thought present would be implied by default instead of required.

---

For now what i did was i created a PresentRuleInferrer and removed RequiredRuleInferrer, maybe that's a good approach, i can open a PR with that if you guys think it's a good approach.

[rubenvanassche]

Using present seems correct to me, this was a bug which should be fixed with the release later today.

[serious-angel]

Just in case, nowadays, the required is still the default, but the Present rule attribute works:

namespace App\Data\Settings;

use App\Enums\Color;
use Spatie\LaravelData\Attributes\MergeValidationRules;
use Spatie\LaravelData\Attributes\Validation\Present;
use Spatie\LaravelData\Data;

#[MergeValidationRules]
final class SomeData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public bool $enabled,
        public ?Color $color,

        /** @var \App\Enums\ColorShade[] */
        #[Present]
        public array $shades,
    ) {}

    public static function rules(): array
    {
        return [
            'shades.*' => [
                'distinct',
            ],
        ];
    }
}

Without the attribute, a request with [] for shades does indeed end up with HTTP 400.