Create object from Zod object with defaults but that will not pass its validation

[andredewaard]

Is it possible to create an object from a Zod object with defaults BUT that will not pass its validation?
So for example i have

const EmailForm = z.object({
  email: z.string().email().default('')
})

const form = EmailForm.parse({}) // This will create the object as { email: '' }

But when i want to validate that the object has an correct email, This should fail

EmailForm.parse(form) // Throw error since form.email is not a correct email

form.email = '[email protected]'
EmailForm.parse(form) // Passes

[mtsknn]

z.string().email().default('') indeed seems to work only with valid emails (wanted to confirm this because I wasn't sure if I had interpreted your question correctly):

const EmailForm = z.object({
  email: z.string().email().default(''),
})

EmailForm.parse({}) //=> ZodError: Invalid email
EmailForm.parse({ email: undefined }) //=> ZodError: Invalid email
EmailForm.parse({ email: 'gibberish' }) //=> ZodError: Invalid email
EmailForm.parse({ email: '[email protected]' }) //=> { email: "test@test.com" }

---

A union works and is quite legible ("accept an email string, or accept undefined and transform it to an empty string"):

const EmailForm = z.object({
  email: z.union([z.string().email(), z.undefined().transform(() => '')]),
})

EmailForm.parse({}) //=> { email: "" }
EmailForm.parse({ email: undefined }) //=> { email: "" }
EmailForm.parse({ email: '[email protected]' }) //=> { email: "test@test.com" }
EmailForm.parse({ email: 'gibberish' }) //=> ZodError: Invalid email

---

Things that I tried but that didn't work:

• z.string().email().optional().default(''): still getting ZodError: Invalid email from EmailForm.parse({}).
• z.undefined().default('') (i.e. using this in the union instead of z.undefined().transform(() => '')): TypeScript complains that the default's param should be of type never or () => never.