Nesting Data | laravel-data | Spatie SPATIE Laravel Data =============== spatie.be/open-source [Docs](https://spatie.be/docs) [Laravel-data](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4) Validation Nesting Data 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/v4/introduction) - [ Support us ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/support-us) - [ Requirements ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/requirements) - [ Installation & setup ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/installation-setup) - [ Third party packages ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/third-party-packages) - [ Questions and issues ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/questions-issues) - [ Changelog ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/changelog) - [ About us ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/about-us) Getting started --------------- - [ Quickstart ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/getting-started/quickstart) As a DTO -------- - [ Creating a data object ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/creating-a-data-object) - [ Nesting ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/nesting) - [ Collections ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/collections) - [ Abstract Data ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/abstract-data) - [ Casts ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/casts) - [ Optional properties ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/optional-properties) - [ Mapping property names ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/mapping-property-names) - [ Default values ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/defaults) - [ Computed values ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/computed) - [ From a request ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/request-to-data-object) - [ From a model ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/model-to-data-object) - [ Injecting property values ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/injecting-property-values) - [ Factories ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/factories) Validation ---------- - [ Introduction ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/validation/introduction) - [ Auto rule inferring ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/validation/auto-rule-inferring) - [ Using validation attributes ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/validation/using-validation-attributes) - [ Manual rules ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/validation/manual-rules) - [ Working with the validator ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/validation/working-with-the-validator) - [ Nesting Data ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/validation/nesting-data) - [ Skipping validation ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/validation/skipping-validation) As a resource ------------- - [ From data to array ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-resource/from-data-to-array) - [ From data to resource ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-resource/from-data-to-resource) - [ Mapping property names ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-resource/mapping-property-names) - [ Appending properties ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-resource/appending-properties) - [ Wrapping ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-resource/wrapping) - [ Including and excluding properties ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-resource/lazy-properties) - [ Transforming data ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-resource/transformers) Advanced usage -------------- - [ Eloquent casting ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/eloquent-casting) - [ Transforming to TypeScript ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/typescript) - [ Working with dates ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/working-with-dates) - [ Normalizers ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/normalizers) - [ Pipeline ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/pipeline) - [ Creating a cast ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/creating-a-cast) - [ Creating a transformer ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/creating-a-transformer) - [ Creating a rule inferrer ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/creating-a-rule-inferrer) - [ Use with Inertia ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/use-with-inertia) - [ Use with Livewire ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/use-with-livewire) - [ Internal structures ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/internal-structures) - [ Mapping rules ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/mapping-rules) - [ Validation attributes ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/validation-attributes) - [ Get data from a class quickly ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/get-data-from-a-class-quickly) - [ Performance ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/performance) - [ Commands ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/commands) - [ Traits and interfaces ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/traits-and-interfaces) - [ In Packages ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/in-packages) - [ Available property mappers ](https://spatie.be/docs/laravel-data/v4/advanced-usage/available-property-mappers) Nesting Data ============ ### On this page 1. [ Validating a nested collection of data objects ](#content-validating-a-nested-collection-of-data-objects) 2. [ Nullable and Optional nested data ](#content-nullable-and-optional-nested-data) A data object can contain other data objects or collections of data objects. The package will make sure that also for these data objects validation rules will be generated. Let's take a look again at the data object from the [nesting](/docs/laravel-data/v4/as-a-data-transfer-object/nesting) section: ``` class AlbumData extends Data { public function __construct( public string $title, public ArtistData $artist, ) { } } ``` The validation rules for this class would be: ``` [ 'title' => ['required', 'string'], 'artist' => ['array'], 'artist.name' => ['required', 'string'], 'artist.age' => ['required', 'integer'], ] ``` Validating a nested collection of data objects -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When validating a data object like this ``` class AlbumData extends Data { /** * @param array $songs */ public function __construct( public string $title, public array $songs, ) { } } ``` In this case the validation rules for `AlbumData` would look like this: ``` [ 'title' => ['required', 'string'], 'songs' => ['present', 'array', new NestedRules()], ] ``` The `NestedRules` class is a Laravel validation rule that will validate each item within the collection for the rules defined on the data class for that collection. Nullable and Optional nested data ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If we make the nested data object nullable, the validation rules will change depending on the payload provided: ``` class AlbumData extends Data { public function __construct( public string $title, public ?ArtistData $artist, ) { } } ``` If no value for the nested object key was provided or the value is `null`, the validation rules will be: ``` [ 'title' => ['required', 'string'], 'artist' => ['nullable'], ] ``` If, however, a value was provided (even an empty array), the validation rules will be: ``` [ 'title' => ['required', 'string'], 'artist' => ['array'], 'artist.name' => ['required', 'string'], 'artist.age' => ['required', 'integer'], ] ``` The same happens when a property is made optional: ``` class AlbumData extends Data { public function __construct( public string $title, public ArtistData $artist, ) { } } ``` There's a small difference compared against nullable, though. When no value was provided for the nested object key, the validation rules will be: ``` [ 'title' => ['required', 'string'], 'artist' => ['present', 'array', new NestedRules()], ] ``` However, when a value was provided (even an empty array or null), the validation rules will be: ``` [ 'title' => ['required', 'string'], 'artist' => ['array'], 'artist.name' => ['required', 'string'], 'artist.age' => ['required', 'integer'], ] ``` We've written a [blog post](https://flareapp.io/blog/fixing-nested-validation-in-laravel) on the reasoning behind these variable validation rules based upon payload. And they are also the reason why calling `getValidationRules` on a data object always requires a payload to be provided.