Laravel 5: Accessing Session Input Data With old

The old helper function is used to retrieve an old input item. It is a shortcut to calling the Illuminate\Http\Request::old instance method. It accepts a $key argument and a $default argument. They $key should be the name of the input item to retrieve and a $default value can be supplied that will be returned if the given $key does not exist.

#Signature

The signature of the old function is:

1function old(
2    $key = null,
3    $default = null
4);

#Example Use

The following example demonstrates how to use the old helper function and assumes that an input item with the key name exits:

1// Retrieve the old name.
2$userName = old('name');
3
4// Retrieve the old name with
5// a default value.
6$userName = old('name', 'John Doe');

The examples below demonstrate different methods to achieve the same result:

1use Illuminate\Facades\Input;
2
3// Retrieve the old name using the Input facade:
4$userName = Input::old('name');
5
6// Retrieve the old name using the request()
7// helper function:
8$userName = request()->old('name');

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