{"id":11441,"date":"2024-10-14T10:28:26","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T10:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/?p=11441"},"modified":"2025-06-04T08:12:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T08:12:34","slug":"where-to-put-and-how-to-handle-enums-in-laravel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/laravel\/where-to-put-and-how-to-handle-enums-in-laravel","title":{"rendered":"Where to Put & How to Handle Enums in Laravel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Laravel, handling enums can be done in a few different ways depending on your use case. You can create enums as part of your PHP code (native PHP enums in PHP 8.1+) or use Laravel’s Enum packages like spatie\/laravel-enum. Here’s an overview of different ways to handle enums in Laravel:<\/p>\n

1. Native PHP Enums (PHP 8.1+)<\/h2>\n

In PHP 8.1 and above, you can use native enums. Laravel supports these; you can use them within your models, database queries, and validation.<\/p>\n

Creating a Native Enum:<\/h3>\n
namespace App\\Enums; \r\nenum UserType: string { \r\n          case ADMIN = 'admin'; \r\n          case EMPLOYEE = 'employee';\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
Using Enums in Models:<\/h3>\n
use App\\Enums\\UserType; \r\nclass User extends Model \r\n{\r\n          protected $casts = [\r\n                   'type' => UserType::class,\r\n           ];\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
Using Enums in Blade\/View:<\/h3>\n
@if($user->type === UserType::ADMIN)<\/pre>\n
This user is an admin.<\/p>\n
@endif<\/p>\n
Using Enums in Validation:<\/h3>\n
use App\\Enums\\UserType;\r\n$validated = $request->validate([\r\n             'type' => ['required', Rule::in(UserType::cases())],\r\n ]);\r\n<\/pre>\n
Converting Enum Values for API Responses:<\/h3>\n
You can easily convert enums to strings in JSON responses.<\/p>\n
public function toArray() { \r\n        return [ \r\n                   'type' => $this->type->value, \r\n        ]; \r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
2. Custom Enum Classes (Pre-PHP 8.1)<\/h2>\n
namespace App\\Enums;\r\nclass UserType {\r\n    const ADMIN = 'admin';\r\n    const EMPLOYEE = 'employee';\r\n\r\n    public static function values() {\r\n        return [\r\n            self::ADMIN,\r\n            self::EMPLOYEE,\r\n        ];\r\n    }\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
Using Custom Enums in Validation:<\/h3>\n
You can easily convert enums to strings in JSON responses.<\/p>\n
$validated = $request->validate([ \r\n                          'type' => [ 'required', Rule::in(UserType::values())], \r\n                    ]);\r\n<\/pre>\n
\"Also
<\/p>
Also Read:<\/h3>Laravel Cloud<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n
In Models:<\/strong> Manually casting using custom mutators or accessors is necessary.<\/p>\n
3. Enum Packages (e.g., Spatie Enum)<\/h2>\n
If you need extra functionality like enum validation or database storage in Laravel, you can use a package like spatie\/laravel-enum.<\/p>\n
Installation:<\/h3>\n
composer require spatie\/enum\r\n<\/pre>\n
Creating an Enum Class Using Spatie:<\/h3>\n
namespace App\\Enums;\r\nuse Spatie\\Enum\\Enum;\r\nclass UserType extends Enum {}\r\n\r\n<\/pre>\n
Using Spatie Enums:<\/h3>\n
$validated = $request->validate([\r\n    'type' => ['required', Rule::enum(UserType::class)],\r\n]);\r\n<\/pre>\n
Spatie’s package provides additional utilities for handling enums like advanced validation, transforming enums, etc.<\/p>\n
4. Enums in Database<\/h2>\n
When working with enums in the database, you can use a VARCHAR or ENUM column type in your migrations.<\/p>\n
Using an ENUM Column in Migrations:<\/h3>\n
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {\r\n    $table->enum('type', ['admin', 'employee']);\r\n});\r\n<\/pre>\n
Using Enums in Model Casts:<\/h3>\n
Combine it with native PHP enums or a custom casting class.<\/p>\n
protected $casts = [ 'type' => UserType::class, ];\r\n<\/pre>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Type Safety:<\/strong> If you’re using PHP 8.1+, prefer native enums for type safety and simplicity.
\nDatabase Compatibility:<\/strong> Use a VARCHAR<\/strong> column in your database instead of an ENUM<\/strong> column if you anticipate the possibility of adding new enum values in the future.
\nValidation:<\/strong> Always validate enum values to ensure valid data is being processed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Laravel, handling enums can be done in a few different ways depending on your use case. You can create enums as part of your PHP code (native PHP enums in PHP 8.1+) or use Laravel’s Enum packages like spatie\/laravel-enum. Here’s an overview of different ways to handle enums in Laravel: 1. Native PHP Enums […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-laravel"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11441"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12497,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11441\/revisions\/12497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bacancytechnology.com\/qanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}