Stop Repeating if Checks with Laravel whenHas()

When processing API requests, you often need to check whether a field was actually included before doing something with it.

A common approach looks like this:

if ($request->has('avatar')) {
    $user->update([
        'avatar' => $request->avatar,
    ]);
}

Laravel provides a cleaner way to express the same intention.

Use whenHas()

$request->whenHas('avatar', function ($avatar) use ($user) {
    $user->update([
        'avatar' => $avatar,
    ]);
});

The callback is executed only when the avatar field is present in the request.

This can make request-processing code easier to read when you have several optional fields.

A Practical Example

Imagine an admin API where different profile fields are optional:

$request->whenHas('name', function ($name) use ($user) {
    $user->name = $name;
});

$request->whenHas('email', function ($email) use ($user) {
    $user->email = $email;
});

$request->whenHas('bio', function ($bio) use ($user) {
    $user->bio = $bio;
});

$user->save();

Instead of writing multiple if ($request->has(...)) blocks, the intention is directly expressed through whenHas().

whenHas() vs whenFilled()

There is an important difference.

whenHas() checks whether the input exists:

$request->whenHas('bio', function ($bio) {
    // Runs when bio exists in the request.
});

While whenFilled() runs only when the input exists and isn't empty:

$request->whenFilled('bio', function ($bio) {
    // Runs when bio has a non-empty value.
});

This distinction is useful when an empty value has a different meaning from a missing field.