Flutter BLoC : how to update state with null values?

Question

How do you deal with "accepted null values" when you update a state in BLoC? I use the flutter_bloc package.

I have a form in which numeric variables are nullable so that I can check their validity before the form is submitted. But when I emit a new state, I use state.copyWith(var1?, var2?)... so when a null value is used to update a parameter, the value is not updated.

To face that I use a custom FieldStatus enum for each field. In my form submission, I can check the status of each field. But this is a bit verbose... and it needs to use 2 values instead of 1 for each field, which is not very satisfying.

I can also force the value to be null according to the new value of its FieldStatus, but it is a bit tricky and not very satisfying.

How would you manage such a case?

Here is what I did:

States:

part of 'phhfgroup_bloc.dart';

class PhhfGroupState extends Equatable
{
    final double? height;
    final FieldStatus heightStatus;
    
    const PhhfGroupState({this.height, this.heightStatus = FieldStatus.initial});
    
    @override
    List<Object?> get props => [height, heightStatus];
    
    PhhfGroupState copyWith({double? height, FieldStatus? heightStatus})
    {
        return PhhfGroupState(
            height: height ?? this.height,
            heightStatus: heightStatus ?? this.heightStatus
        );
    }
}

Events:

part of 'phhfgroup_bloc.dart';

abstract class PhhfGroupEvent extends Equatable
{
    const PhhfGroupEvent();
    
    @override
    List<Object> get props => [];
}

class HeightChanged extends PhhfGroupEvent
{
    const HeightChanged({required this.height});
    final String height;

    @override
    List<Object> get props => [height];
}

Handler:

import 'package:equatable/equatable.dart';
import 'package:flutter_bloc/flutter_bloc.dart';
import 'package:myapp/models/statuses.dart';

part 'phhfgroup_event.dart';
part 'phhfgroup_state.dart';

class PhhfGroupBloc extends Bloc<PhhfGroupEvent, PhhfGroupState>
{
    PhhfGroupBloc() : super()
    {
        on<HeightChanged>(_mapHeightEventToState);
    }
    
    void _mapHeightEventToState(HeightChanged event, Emitter<PhhfGroupState> emit)
    {
        if(event.height.isEmpty)
        {
            emit(this.state.copyWith(
                height: null,
                heightStatus: FieldStatus.empty
            ));
        }
        
        else
        {
            double? height = double.tryParse(event.height);
            
            if(height == null)
                emit(this.state.copyWith(
                    height: null,
                    heightStatus: FieldStatus.nonnumeric
                ));
            
            else emit(this.state.copyWith(
                height: height,
                heightStatus: FieldStatus.numeric
            ));
        }
    }
}

Thanks !

Answer 1

By using freeze , you could do as follow:

void main() {
  var person = Person('Remi', 24);

  // `age` not passed, its value is preserved
  print(person.copyWith(name: 'Dash')); // Person(name: Dash, age: 24)
  // `age` is set to `null`
  print(person.copyWith(age: null)); // Person(name: Remi, age: null)
}

If you don't want to use another package, I suggest to add an argument for controlling nullable values.

class PhhfGroupState extends Equatable
{
    final double? height;
    final FieldStatus heightStatus;
    
    const PhhfGroupState({this.height, this.heightStatus = FieldStatus.initial});
    
    @override
    List<Object?> get props => [height, heightStatus];
    
    PhhfGroupState copyWith({double? height, FieldStatus? heightStatus, bool clearHeight = false})
    {
        return PhhfGroupState(
            height: clearHeight == true ? null : height ?? this.height,
            heightStatus: heightStatus ?? this.heightStatus
        );
    }
}

If you have a bunch of nullable fields, I would strongly recommend freeze , but for others, just add a flag for It.

Answer 2

Thanks a lot because it is exactly what I need. Avoid lots of boilerplate code to achieve this simple goal...

So to achieve what I need I will use:

• freeze to help manage state / events
• my FieldStatus enum to make some informations available in the view

Answer 3

Another way, you can use ValueGetter .

For example, password below:

@immutable
class LoginPageState {
  const LoginPageState({
    this.phone,
    this.password,
  });

  final String? phone;
  final String? password;

  LoginPageState copyWith({
    String? phone,
    ValueGetter<String?>? password,
  }) {
    return LoginPageState(
      phone: phone ?? this.phone,
      password: password != null ? password() : this.password,
    );
  }
}

Set password to null :

void resetPassword() {
  final newState = state.copyWith(password: () => null);
  emit(newState);
}

You don't need any extra flag.