How to change empty string to a null using Laravel 5.1?

Question

While using Laravel 5.1, I am trying to check every value before it is saved in the database using Eloquent ORM. My logic is, first trim the value, if the value is an empty string "", then to convert it to null instead of just an empty string.

I was advised to create a Trait which will override the setAttribute method for that.

So here is what I have done

I have a new folder "app\Traits" inside of a file called TrimScalarValues.php which contains the following code

<?php

namespace App\Traits;

trait TrimScalarValues
{
    public function setAttribute($key, $value)
    {
        if (is_scalar($value)) {
            $value = $this->emptyStringToNull(trim($value));
        }

        return $this->setAttribute($key, $value);
    }


    /**
     * return null value if the string is empty otherwise it returns what every the value is
     *
    */
    private function emptyStringToNull($string)
    {
        //trim every value
        $string = trim($string);

        if ($string === ''){
           return null;
        }

        return $string;
    }
}

Finally I have a app\Models\Account.php file which contains the following code

<?php

namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use App\Models\industry;
use App\Traits\RecordSignature;
use App\Traits\TrimScalarValues;


class Account extends Model
{
    use RecordSignature, TrimScalarValues;
    /**
     * The database table used by the model.
     *
     * @var string
    */
    protected $table = 'accounts';

    protected $primaryKey = 'account_id';

    const CREATED_AT = 'created_on';

    const UPDATED_AT = 'modified_on';

    const REMOVED_AT = 'purged_on';


    /**
     * The attributes that are mass assignable.
     *
     * @var array
    */
    protected $fillable = ['client_id','account_name', 'company_code', 'legal_name', 'created_by','modified_by','instrucations'];

    /**
     * The attributes excluded from the model's JSON form.
     *
     * @var array
    */
    //protected $hidden = ['account_id', 'remember_token'];


    protected $guarded = ['account_id'];

    /**
     * Get the industry record associated with the account.
    */
    public function industry()
    {
        return $this->hasOne(industry, industry::primaryKey);
    }

    public function pk(){

        return $this->primaryKey;
    }

}

But every time I update a value, I get a white page with no error or logs.

When I modify the app\Models\Account.php and change use RecordSignature, TrimScalarValues; to use RecordSignature; then I do not get a white page but obviously the values are not trimmed and converted to null.

What am I doing wrong here?

lukasgeiter · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-29 19:00:54Z

6

You can't call $this->setAttribute() in your trait. Instead you want to call the "original" setAttribute method by using parent:::

public function setAttribute($key, $value)
{
    if (is_scalar($value)) {
        $value = $this->emptyStringToNull(trim($value));
    }

    return parent::setAttribute($key, $value);
}

Regarding the empty logs, have you checked the webserver log besides the one from the framework?

answered Jul 29, 2015 at 19:00

lukasgeiter

154k29 gold badges349 silver badges280 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Ale · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-22 19:54:56Z

5

I had the same problem and solved it by creating a middleware that filters empty input fields.

public function handle($request, Closure $next) {
    $input = $request->all();
    if ($input) {
        array_walk_recursive($input, function (&$item) {
            $item = trim($item);
            $item = ($item == "") ? null : $item;
        });
        $request->merge($input);
    }
    return $next($request);
}

Don't forget to add your custom middleware to Http/Kernel.php

Found this at Laracasts

answered Feb 22, 2016 at 19:54

Ale

781 silver badge4 bronze badges

Comments

HamzStramGram · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-29 07:52:44Z

1

You might wanna take a look at this package: https://packagist.org/packages/iatstuti/laravel-nullable-fields

"This create a trait and allows you to easily flag attributes that should be set as null when being persisted to the database."

I know this post is old, and at that time this package maybe didn't exist yet.

answered Apr 29, 2016 at 7:52

HamzStramGram

4371 gold badge7 silver badges17 bronze badges

Comments

Vitaliy Gura · Accepted Answer · 2015-07-29 18:57:54Z

-1

You can use mutator in you model. For the field account_name mutator should looks like this:

public function setAccountNameAttribute($account_name)
{
    if(is_null($account_name))
    {
        $this->attributes['account_name'] = null;
    }
    else
    {
        $this->attributes['account_name'] = $account_name;
    }
}

And everytime when you will update or insert the record using Eloquent, account_name will be passed through this mutator.

answered Jul 29, 2015 at 18:57

Vitaliy Gura

114 bronze badges

1 Comment

Junior Over a year ago

but I don't want to do that for every field in my database. If i have many columns/tables "models" this could become instead. Additionally is_null('') will return false which means I accomplish nothing!

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to change empty string to a null using Laravel 5.1?

4 Answers 4

Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

Comments

Comments

Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related