Laravel do not validate if field is not required
Stefan Bogdanescu
Founder & Senior Architect · 2026-06-29
Title: Laravel Request Validation: Understanding Required Fields and Conditional Logic
Body:
Request validation in Laravel is a powerful tool used to ensure that incoming data (from forms or APIs) adheres to certain rules and guidelines set by the developer. In some cases, you may want to specify conditional logic for form fields based on other field values or choices made in your application.
The Problem
In our initial scenario, we have a request validation that checks whether a 'digits:10' rule is required even if the 'type' is not 'individual'. This leads to an error when the given context does not apply. To tackle this issue, we need to understand how Laravel handles conditional field validations with the provided `required_if` and other validation rules.Understanding Conditional Validation Rules
Laravel provides various types of conditional validation rules that allow you to validate fields based on their relations to others or specific conditions. The `required_if`, for example, ensures the field is required only if a given condition is met. In our case, we have two groups of rules: one set for individual 'type' and another for legal-entity 'type'.Solving the Problem
To resolve this issue, we can modify our validation to check whether the pin field should be required or not based on the provided type. We will use the `required_with` rule along with custom logic in our controller or request class. Here is an updated example:<?php
namespace App\Http\Requests;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Http\FormRequest;
class OwnerEstate extends FormRequest
{
/**
* Determine if the user is authorized to make this request.
*
* @return bool
*/
public function authorize()
{
return true;
}
/**
* Get the validation rules that apply to the request.
*
* @return array
*/
public function rules()
{
if ($this->type == 'individual') {
$rules = [
'firstname' => 'required',
'secondname' => 'required',
'lastname' => 'required',
'pin' => 'required|digits:10',
];
} else if ($this->type == 'legal-entity') {
$rules = [
'name' => 'required',
'eik' => 'required|digits:9',
];
}
return $rules;
}
}