`$errors` in Laravel: What It Is and How to Use It

Learn more about $errors in Laravel and how to use them. Our Laravel Support team is here to answer your queries and concerns.

`$errors` in Laravel: What It Is and How to Use It

Laravel simplifies form validation. At the heart of this feature is the `$errors` variable. Understanding this feature helps us offer clear feedback to users and streamline debugging when building a simple contact form or a complex input flow.

Today, we will explain `$errors`, where they come from, common causes of their appearance, and how to use them effectively in our Laravel applications.

What is `$errors` in Laravel?

In Laravel, `$errors` is a special variable that holds validation error messages from form requests. It is automatically available in views when validation fails and is part of Laravel’s validation ecosystem.

Under the hood, `$errors` is an instance of the `Illuminate\Support\MessageBag` class, wrapped inside a `ViewErrorBag`. So, we don’t need to declare or pass it manually, it is shared with views via Laravel’s middleware system.

If you’re working with custom error logic, it’s useful to know how to add custom messages directly to the MessageBag programmatically. This can be helpful when handling errors that don’t originate from form requests.

So, here’s how we can use it in a Blade template:

@if ($errors->has('email'))

<span class="text-danger">{{ $errors->first('email') }}</span>

@endif

This code checks if there’s a validation error for the `email` field and displays the corresponding message.

Why Does `$errors` Show Up?

There are several reasons why the `$errors` variable may be populated:

• The most common cause is invalid data submission. Laravel’s validation engine catches errors such as:
  • Missing required fields
  • Wrong data types
  • Fields not matching regex or format constraints
  • Violations of length constraints

  If you’re new to Laravel forms or facing deployment routing issues, ensure your environment is set up correctly. Here’s a guide on fixing Laravel route issues on shared hosting that can help.
• $errors can also be triggered if we are using custom validation rules or manual `Validator` logic in controllers or `FormRequest` classes.
• When a form request class includes an `authorize()` method and it returns `false`, Laravel may redirect the user back with an error. This, too, can result in `$errors` being populated.

Where Do `$errors` Come From?

Laravel automatically makes `$errors` available in our views thanks to the `ShareErrorsFromSession` middleware. This middleware is part of the `web` middleware group, which is applied to most of our routes by default.

So, we can confirm this in your `app/Http/Kernel.php` file:

\Illuminate\View\Middleware\ShareErrorsFromSession::class,

The relevant logic can be found in:

• /vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/View/Middleware/ShareErrorsFromSession.php
• /vendor/laravel/framework/src/Illuminate/Http/RedirectResponse.php

Look for the withErrors() method.

Before Laravel 5.6, developers had to fetch error messages using: manually

Session::get('errors')->all();

But with the middleware in place, Laravel takes care of it automatically.

For developers encountering more advanced Laravel issues, like package conflicts, this blog on resolving Laravel Fortify class feature errors may come in handy.

How to Use `$errors` Effectively

Here are a few tips from our Experts to get the most out of Laravel’s error handling:

• Define clear validation rules in controllers or `FormRequest` classes.
• Additionally, redirect with errors using `withErrors()` after manual validation.
• Also, display field-specific messages in your Blade templates using `$errors->has()` and `$errors→first()`.
• Furthermore, uUse `old()` values to retain user input on validation failure for a better UX.
• Check if `$errors` exists before accessing it.

For database-heavy apps where validation accompanies seeding, you might also find it helpful to learn how to seed multiple records efficiently in Laravel, especially during development and testing.

In short:

[Need assistance with a different issue? Our team is available 24/7.]

Conclusion

Whether we are debugging a form issue or improving user experience with clean validation feedback, knowing how `$errors` works is key.

In brief, our Support Experts introduced us to `$errors` in Laravel and showed us how to use them.