How to Use Enum in Laravel?

In this tutorial we will learn how to use enum in Laravel.

Overview

1) Define an Enum Class

2) Use the Enum

3) Using Enum Values

4) Accessing Enum Values

Laravel enums

You can perform a migration, choose the enum data type, and then set an enum value in that location if you want to use the enum data type for your table. If you do, you will need to set an enum value. However, if at a later time you decide that you want to add one more enum value, you will need to build migration once more and modify it. So, Laravel provides enum model attribute casting. You have the ability to set cast on the model and build an enum class. You can learn from the example that is broken down into steps below.

You need to follow below steps to use enums in Laravel.

Step 1 - Define an Enum Class

Create a new PHP class that extends the Illuminate\Support\Enum class. This class will represent your enum and define its possible values. For example, let's say you have an enum for user roles:

namespace App\Enums;

use Illuminate\Support\Enum;

class UserRole extends Enum
{
    const ADMIN = 'admin';
    const USER = 'user';
    const MODERATOR = 'moderator';
}

Step 2 -  Use the Enum

You can utilize the enum class in your Laravel application once it has been defined. For example, you can use it as a column type in your database migrations:

use App\Enums\UserRole;
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema;

class CreateUsersTable extends Migration
{
    public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
            $table->id();
            $table->string('name');
            $table->enum('role', UserRole::getValues())->default(UserRole::USER);
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }

    // ...
}

In the above example, we are using the enum column type and providing the possible values from the UserRole enum class. We are also setting a default value of USER for the role column.

Step 3 -  Using Enum Values

You can use the enum values in your application logic. For example, when creating a new user:

use App\Enums\UserRole;
use App\Models\User;

$user = new User();
$user->name = 'John Doe';
$user->role = UserRole::ADMIN;
$user->save();

In the above example, we are assigning the ADMIN value from the UserRole enum to the role property of the User model.

Step 4 -  Accessing Enum Values

The static methods offered by the enum class allow you to access the enum values. For example:

use App\Enums\UserRole;

$adminRole = UserRole::ADMIN;
$allRoles = UserRole::getValues();

In the above example, we are assigning the ADMIN value to the $adminRole variable, and retrieving all the enum values using the getValues() method.

That's it! You have now successfully implemented and used enums in Laravel. Enums offer an efficient way to specify a group of predefined variables and utilize them uniformly across your program.