Optional properties | laravel-data | Spatie

 SPATIE

  Laravel Data
===============

spatie.be/open-source

  [Docs](https://spatie.be/docs)  [Laravel-data](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2)  As-a-data-transfer-object  Optional properties

 Version   v4   v3   v2   v1

 Other versions for crawler [v4](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4) [v3](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v3) [v2](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2) [v1](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v1)

- [ Introduction ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/introduction)
- [ Support us ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/support-us)
- [ Requirements ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/requirements)
- [ Installation & setup ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/installation-setup)
- [ Questions and issues ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/questions-issues)
- [ Changelog ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/changelog)
- [ About us ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/about-us)

Getting started
---------------

- [ Quickstart ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/getting-started/quickstart)

As a DTO
--------

- [ Creating a data object ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/as-a-data-transfer-object/creating-a-data-object)
- [ Optional properties ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/as-a-data-transfer-object/optional-properties)
- [ Nesting ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/as-a-data-transfer-object/nesting)
- [ Collections ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/as-a-data-transfer-object/collections)
- [ Casts ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/as-a-data-transfer-object/casts)
- [ From a request ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/as-a-data-transfer-object/request-to-data-object)

As a resource
-------------

- [ From data to resource ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/as-a-resource/from-data-to-resource)
- [ Including and excluding properties ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/as-a-resource/lazy-properties)
- [ Wrapping ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/as-a-resource/wrapping)
- [ Transforming data ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/as-a-resource/transformers)

Advanced usage
--------------

- [ Eloquent casting ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/advanced-usage/eloquent-casting)
- [ Transforming to TypeScript ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/advanced-usage/typescript)
- [ Working with dates ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/advanced-usage/working-with-dates)
- [ Normalizers ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/advanced-usage/normalizers)
- [ Pipeline ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/advanced-usage/pipeline)
- [ Use with Inertia ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/advanced-usage/use-with-inertia)
- [ Use with Livewire ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/advanced-usage/use-with-livewire)
- [ Creating a cast ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/advanced-usage/creating-a-cast)
- [ Creating a transformer ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/advanced-usage/creating-a-transformer)
- [ Creating a rule inferrer ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/advanced-usage/creating-a-rule-inferrer)
- [ Internal structures ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/advanced-usage/internal-structures)
- [ Validation attributes ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v2/advanced-usage/validation-attributes)

      You are viewing the documentation for **an older version** of this package. You can check the version you are using with the following command:

 `                                    composer show spatie/laravel-data                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    `

Optional properties
===================

Sometimes you have a data object with properties which shouldn't always be set, for example in a partial API update where you only want to update certain fields. In this case you can make a property `Optional` as such:

```
class SongData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public string $title,
        public string|Optional $artist,
    ) {
    }
}
```

You can now create the data object as such:

```
SongData::from([
    'title' => 'Never gonna give you up'
]);
```

The value of `artist` will automatically be set to `Optional`. When you transform this data object to an array, it will look like this:

```
[
    'title' => 'Never gonna give you up'
]
```

You can manually use `Optional` values within magical creation methods as such:

```
class SongData extends Data
{
    public function __construct(
        public string $title,
        public string|Optional $artist,
    ) {
    }

    public static function fromTitle(string $title): static{
        return new self($title, Optional::create());
    }
}
```