Laravel string validation to allow empty strings

Question

In Laravel 5.7 I am using form request validation:

public function rules() 
{
    return [
        'age' => 'integer',
        'title' => 'string|max:50'
    ];
}

If I submit a request to my API with this payload:

{
  "age": 24,
  "title": ""
}

Laravel returns the error:

{
    "message": "The given data was invalid.",
    "errors": {
        "title": [
            "The title must be a string."
        ]
    }
}

I would expect it to pass the validation, since the title is a string, albeit an empty one. How should the validation be formulated to allow empty strings?

Answer 1

You would need nullable to allow an empty string

public function rules() 
{
    return [
        'age' => 'integer',
        'title' => 'nullable|string|max:50'
    ];
}

Answer 2

Try to see if ConvertEmptyStringsToNull middleware is active then it would explain this behavior, see docs