matchedData()

These methods are all available via require('express-validator').

matchedData(req[, options])

• req: the express request object.
• options (optional): an object which accepts the following options:
  • includeOptionals: if set to true, the returned value includes optional data. Defaults to false.
  • onlyValidData: if set to false, the returned value includes data from fields that didn't pass their validations. Defaults to true.
  • locations: an array of locations to extract the data from. The acceptable values include body, cookies, headers, params and query. Defaults to undefined, which means all locations.

Returns: an object of data that express-validator has validated or sanitized.

Extracts data validated or sanitized by express-validator from the request and builds an object with them. Nested paths and wildcards are properly handled as well.
See examples below.

Examples

Gathering data from multiple locations

If data you validated or sanitized is spread across various request locations (e.g. req.body, req.query, req.params, etc), then matchedData will gather it properly. You can also customize which locations you want the data from.

// Suppose the request looks like this:
// req.query = { from: '2017-01-12' }
// req.body = { to: '2017-31-12' }

app.post('/room-availability', check(['from', 'to']).isISO8601(), (req, res, next) => {
  const queryData = matchedData(req, { locations: ['query'] });
  const bodyData = matchedData(req, { locations: ['body'] });
  const allData = matchedData(req);
  console.log(queryData); // { from: '2017-01-12' }
  console.log(bodyData);  // { to: '2017-31-12' }
  console.log(allData);   // { from: '2017-01-12', to: '2017-31-12' }
});

Including optional data

You may want to have optional values among the required ones.

If they are not included, some databases might understand that you don't want to update those values, so it's useful to set them to null or an empty string.

// Suppose the request looks like this:
// req.body = { name: 'John Doe', bio: '' }

app.post('/update-user', [
  check('name').not().isEmpty(),
  check('bio').optional({ checkFalsy: true }).escape(),
], (req, res, next) => {
  const requiredData = matchedData(req, { includeOptionals: false });
  const allData = matchedData(req, { includeOptionals: true });
  console.log(requiredData);  // { name: 'John Doe' }
  console.log(allData);       // { name: 'John Doe', bio: '' }
});