Laravel sometimes validation rule

Question

I am trying to validate a password field only if it is present. I want to allow someone to edit a user and they may or may not want to change the users password. So I thought I

Answer 1

In edit mode you fill password field by for example "********" and in update mode validate like this

$this->validate($request, [
    'password' => 'required|min:8',
]);

and in controller check $data['password']='********' find old password and

$data['password']='old password in db'

and $data['password']!='********' update pssword