Laravel in_array validation rule

Question

I have defined an array

$this->allslots=array('10:00:00', '10:10:00', '10:20:00', '10:30:00', '10:40:00', '10:50:00', '11:00:00', '11:10:00', '11:20:00', '11:30:00', '11:40:00', '11:50:00', '12:00:00', '12:10:00', '12:20:00', '12:30:00', '12:40:00', '12:50:00', '13:00:00', '13:10:00', '13:20:00', '13:30:00', '13:40:00', '13:50:00', '14:00:00', '14:10:00', '14:20:00', '14:30:00', '14:40:00', '14:50:00', '15:00:00', '15:10:00', '15:20:00', '15:30:00', '15:40:00', '15:50:00', '16:00:00', '16:10:00', '16:20:00', '16:30:00', '16:40:00', '16:50:00');

Now, I want to validate before saving data to database that, if a given input matches one of the value of the above array. For this I'm doing

$this->validate($request, [

        'field' => 'required|in_array:$this->allslots',
    ]);

But, this returns validation error for every input. So, how can I do this?

Answer 1

This is a bit more semantic than the accepted answer:

use Illuminate\Validation\Rule;

$this->allslots=array('10:00:00', '10:10:00', '10:20:00', '10:30:00', '10:40:00', '10:50:00', '11:00:00', '11:10:00', '11:20:00', '11:30:00', '11:40:00', '11:50:00', '12:00:00', '12:10:00', '12:20:00', '12:30:00', '12:40:00', '12:50:00', '13:00:00', '13:10:00', '13:20:00', '13:30:00', '13:40:00', '13:50:00', '14:00:00', '14:10:00', '14:20:00', '14:30:00', '14:40:00', '14:50:00', '15:00:00', '15:10:00', '15:20:00', '15:30:00', '15:40:00', '15:50:00', '16:00:00', '16:10:00', '16:20:00', '16:30:00', '16:40:00', '16:50:00');

$request->validate([
    'field' => [
        'required',
        Rule::in($this->allslots)
    ]
]);

Answer 2

I found a better solution. The validate in_array expects the array to be one of the parameters in the request. The accepted answer will not work if you have commas in the array. To use the in_array without having to create a new rule you can simply do:

$this->allslots=array('10:00:00', '10:10:00', '10:20:00', '10:30:00', '10:40:00', '10:50:00', '11:00:00', '11:10:00', '11:20:00', '11:30:00', '11:40:00', '11:50:00', '12:00:00', '12:10:00', '12:20:00', '12:30:00', '12:40:00', '12:50:00', '13:00:00', '13:10:00', '13:20:00', '13:30:00', '13:40:00', '13:50:00', '14:00:00', '14:10:00', '14:20:00', '14:30:00', '14:40:00', '14:50:00', '15:00:00', '15:10:00', '15:20:00', '15:30:00', '15:40:00', '15:50:00', '16:00:00', '16:10:00', '16:20:00', '16:30:00', '16:40:00', '16:50:00');

$request['allslots'] = $this->allslots;

validate($request, [

        'field' => 'required|in_array:allslots.*',
    ]);

Make sure you include the .* at the end

Answer 3

Try this:

'field' => 'required|in:' . implode(',', $this->allslots),

Does that give you the expected result?