---
title: OneOf input objects
---

# OneOf input objects

import { Tabs } from 'nextra/components';

Some inputs will behave differently depending on what input we choose. Let's look at the case for
a field named `product`, we can fetch a `Product` by either its `id` or its `name`. Currently we'd
make a tradeoff for this by introducing two arguments that are both nullable, now if both are passed
as null (or both non-null) we'd have to handle that in code - the type system wouldn't indicate that exactly one was required. To fix this, the `@oneOf` directive was introduced so we
can create this "exactly one option" constraint without sacrificing the strictly typed nature of our GraphQL Schema.

<Tabs items={['SDL', 'Code']}>
    <Tabs.Tab>
```js
const schema = buildSchema(`
  type Product {
    id: ID!
    name: String!
  }

  input ProductLocation {
    aisleNumber: Int!
    shelfNumber: Int!
    positionOnShelf: Int!
  }

  input ProductSpecifier @oneOf {
    id: ID
    name: String
    location: ProductLocation
  }

  type Query {
    product(by: ProductSpecifier!): Product
  }
`);
```
    </Tabs.Tab>
    <Tabs.Tab>
```js
const Product = new GraphQLObjectType({
  name: 'Product',
  fields: {
    id: {
      type: new GraphQLNonNull(GraphQLID),
    },
    name: {
      type: new GraphQLNonNull(GraphQLString),
    },
  },
});

const ProductLocation = new GraphQLInputObjectType({
  name: 'ProductLocation',
  isOneOf: true,
  fields: {
    aisleNumber: { type: GraphQLInt },
    shelfNumber: { type: GraphQLInt },
    positionOnShelf: { type: GraphQLInt },
  },
});

const ProductSpecifier = new GraphQLInputObjectType({
  name: 'ProductSpecifier',
  isOneOf: true,
  fields: {
    id: { type: GraphQLID },
    name: { type: GraphQLString },
    location: { type: ProductLocation },
  },
});

const schema = new GraphQLSchema({
  query: new GraphQLObjectType({
    name: 'Query',
    fields: {
      product: {
        type: Product,
        args: { by: { type: ProductSpecifier } },
      },
    },
  }),
});
```
    </Tabs.Tab>
</Tabs>

It doesn't matter whether you have 2 or more inputs here, all that matters is
that your user will have to specify one, and only one, for this input to be valid.
The values are not limited to scalars, lists and other input object types are also allowed.
