Why Laravel doesn't care about array input validation?

Question

Here is my validator:

$validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [
   'considerations' => 'required',
   'product_id.*'  => "required"
]);

It validates considerations as well. If $request be lack of considerations item, it throws:

The considerations field is required.

Which is right. But it doesn't care about product_id . If I don't send that parameter it passes the validation as well. It will throw an error only if I send product_id[0] and no value for it. Then it will throw:

The product_id.0 field is required.

But if I don't send product_id parameter, it doesn't care and doesn't throw any error. Why? And how can I fix it?

Answer 1

Looks as though your validation rules are equivalent to saying

"Ensure any contents of the product_id array hold a value if the product_id field is provided"

I would add another rule which is 'product_id' => 'required' to your validation array which should ensure that the product_id key is in the post fields too.

Answer 2

You must put a validation on the product_id itself. Eg

$validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [
   'considerations' => 'required',
   'product_id'  => "required|array",
   'product_id.*'  => "required"
]);

Answer 3

You can use like this

        $rules =   ['considerations' => 'required',
                   'product_id-token' => 'required|array'];
        $message = ['considerations.required' => 'Your validation message',
                   'product_id-token.required' => 'Your validation message',];

        $validator = Validator::make($request->input(), $rules, $message);