Convert Empty Data of Any Type to Null in PHP with Nullify

Nullify is a plain PHP class to convert empty data of any type to null. PHP ^8.0 is required to use this class.

Installation

You need to install this package via composer:

composer require michael-rubel/nullify

Usage

use MichaelRubel\Nullify\Nullify;

Nullify::the($value);

Note: the class checks also nested iterables and ArrayAccess objects.

Examples

$value = null;
Nullify::the($value); // null

$value = '';
Nullify::the($value); // null

$value = [];
Nullify::the($value); // null

$value = (object) [];
Nullify::the($value); // null

$value = new \stdClass;
Nullify::the($value); // null

Check nested elements:

$values = new Collection([
    'valid'        => true,
    'empty_array'  => [],
    'empty_string' => '',
    'collection'   => new Collection([
        'invalid' => new \stdClass,
    ])
]);

Nullify::the($values);

// Illuminate\Support\Collection^ {#459
//   #items: array:4 [
//     "valid" => true
//     "empty_array" => null
//     "empty_string" => null
//     "collection" => Illuminate\Support\Collection^ {#461
//       #items: array:1 [
//         "invalid" => null
//       ]
//       #escapeWhenCastingToString: false
//     }
//   ]
//   #escapeWhenCastingToString: false
// }

If you use Laravel Collections, you can make a macro:

Collection::macro('nullify', function () {
    return $this->map(fn ($value) => Nullify::the($value));
});

collect(['', [], (object) [], new \stdClass, '✔'])
    ->nullify()
    ->toArray(); // [0 => null, 1 => null, 2 => null, 3 => null, 4 => '✔']

For more details and source code you can visit this package’s documentation on Github.