The FlatValidator is a validation library for .NET that delivers an high performance and memory prudence by using lambda-based and strongly-typed rules.

Quick examples

In general, there are two simple ways to validate custom data with the FlatValidator.

1. Inline mode

You can define validation rules in your code to validate object locally.

var someModel = new SomeModel(
      Email: "[email protected]", 
      BirthDate: DateTime.Now, 
      Rate: -100
);

// validate synchronously
var result =  FlatValidator.Validate(someModel, v =>
{
    // IsEmail() is one of built-in funcs for typical data formats 
    // like Phone, Url, CreditCard, Password, etc.
    v.ValidIf(m => m.Email.IsEmail(), m => $"Invalid email: {m.Email}", m => m.Email);

    v.ErrorIf(m => m.Type == "Adult" && m.Age < 18, "Forbidden", m => m.Type, m => m.Age);

    v.WarningIf(m => m.BirthDate >= DateTime.Now, "Looks like incorrect", m => m.BirthDate);
});
if (!result) 
{
    var ret = result.ToDictionary(); // Dictionary<PropertyName, ErrorMessage[]>
    return TypedResults.ValidationProblem(ret); // for Minimal API
}

// or validate asynchronously
var result = await FlatValidator.ValidateAsync(model, v => 
{
    v.ErrorIf(m => remoteApi.IsEmailBlockedAsync(m.Email),
              m => $"Email {m.Email} is in black list.", 
              m => m.Email);

    // the same with `async/await`
    v.ErrorIf(async m => await remoteApi.IsEmailBlockedAsync(m.Email),
              "Email is in black list.", m => m.Email);
});


// possibility to inspect occured validation failures:
bool success = result.IsValid;
var errors = result.Errors;
var warnings = result.Warnings;

2. Inheritance

Another way is to inherit the FlatValidator to define custom rules in the constructor. Also you can pass dependencies into constructor to get additional functionality inside of the validation rules.

public record UserModel(string Forename, string Surname, ....);

public class UserValidator: FlatValidator<UserModel> 
{
    public UserValidator(ILogger logger, IPostalService postalService) 
    {
        logger.LogInfo("Validating...");

        ErrorIf(m => m.Forename.IsEmpty() || m.Surname.IsEmpty(),
                "Forename and Surname can not be empty.", 
                m => m.Forename, m => m.Surname);
        
        // use 'If(...)' to control a validation flow
        If(m => m.ShipmentAddress.NotEmpty(), @then: m =>
        {
            ValidIf(async m => await postalService.AddressExistsAsync(m.Address),
                     "Postal address not found.", m => m.Address);

            WarningIf(m => !m.Phone.IsPhone(), "No contact phone.");
        },
        @else: m => // @else section is optional
        {
            ValidIf(m => m.Phone.IsPhone(), "Invalid phone number.", m => m.Phone);
        });
    }
}

Now lets validate some object with it

// create instance of the custom validator
var validator = new UserValidator();

// validate _asynchronously_ and get a result
var result = await validator.ValidateAsync(customer, cancellationToken);

// OR validate _synchronously_ and get a result
var result = validator.Validate(new UserModel(...)); 

if (!result) // check, is there any errors?
{
    // ToDictionary() => Dictionary<PropertyName, ErrorMessage[]>
    var dict = result.ToDictionary();
    
    var errors = result.Errors;
    var warnings = result.Warnings;
}

3. Meta data

Using MetaData can extend functionality and can help to return certain data beyond the validator:

var result = FlatValidator.Validate(model, v =>
{
    v.MetaData["ValidationTime"] = DateTime.UtcNow.ToString();
    // ....
});

// access to the MetaData value outside of the validation
return result.MetaData["ValidationTime"];

4. Built-in validators

1. Built-in validators for primitive data:
   • IsEmpty(string) ensure the string is Null or WhiteSpace: ErrorIf(str => str.IsEmpty(), ...).
   • NotEmpty(string) ensure the string is not Null and not WhiteSpace: ValidIf(str => str.NotEmpty(), ...).
   • IsEmpty(GUID) ensure the GUID is empty: ErrorIf(guid => guid.IsEmpty(), ...).
   • NotEmpty(GUID) ensure the GUID is not empty: ValidIf(guid => guid.NotEmpty(), ...).
   • IsEmpty(GUID?) ensure the GUID? is Null or Guid.Empty: ErrorIf(guid => guid.IsEmpty(), ...).
   • NotEmpty(GUID?) ensure the GUID? is not Null and not Guid.Empty: ValidIf(guid => guid.NotEmpty(), ...).

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2. Built-in validators for typical custom data:
   • ValidIf(eml => eml.IsEmail(), ... - check the string contains an email.
   • ValidIf(phnum => phnum.IsPhoneNumber(), ... - check the string contains a phone number.
   • ValidIf(cardnum => cardnum.IsCreditCardNumber(), ... - check the string contains a credit card number.
   • ValidIf(carddt => carddt.IsCreditCardExpiryDate(), ... - check the string contains an expiration date for credit card in format MM/yy.
     If credit card is expired, it will also return false.
   • ValidIf(cvv => cvv.IsCreditCardCVV(), ... - check the string contains a CVV.
   • ValidIf(uri => uri.IsAbsoluteUri(), ... - returns false if URI value:
     • is not correctly escaped as per URI spec excluding intl UNC name case.
     • is an absolute Uri that represents implicit file Uri c:\dir\file.
     • is an absolute Uri that misses a slash before path file://c:/dir/file.
     • contains unescaped backslashes even if they will be treated as forward slashes like http:\\host/path\file or file:\\\c:\path.

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3. Build-in password helpers:
   • ValidIf(str => str.IsPassword(), ... - check password occupancy rate;
     some additional parameters may be passed to adopt logic:
     • Length of the password must be at least 'minLength' symbols (by default = 8).
     • Password must contain at least the 'minLower' number of the lower case symbols (by default = 1).
     • Password must contain at least the 'minUpper' number of the upper case symbols (by default = 1).
     • Password must contain at least the 'minDigits' number of the digits (by default = 1).
     • Password must contain at least the 'minSpecial' number of the special symbols which may also be provided additionally (none by default).
   • FlatValidatorFuncs.GetPasswordStrength(string? password) - calculates the cardinality of the minimal character sets necessary to brute force the password (roughly).
     Returns PasswordStrength as one value of the VeryWeak, Weak, Medium, Strong, VeryStrong enum.
   • FlatValidatorFuncs.GetPasswordStrength(string? password, out int score, out int maxScore)
     out param score - score for the password, it is always less than maxScore;
     out param maxScore - calculated max score that is possible for this password.
     Returns PasswordStrength as one value of the VeryWeak, Weak, Medium, Strong, VeryStrong enum.
   • FlatValidatorFuncs.GetShannonEntropy(string password) - this uses the Shannon entropy equation to estimate the average minimum number of bits needed to encode a string of symbols, based on the frequency of the symbols.
     Returns a double value that's Shannon entropy.
   • FlatValidatorFuncs.GetShannonEntropy(string password, out int shannonEntropyInBits) - this uses the Shannon entropy equation to estimate the average minimum number of bits needed to encode a string of symbols, based on the frequency of the symbols.
     Out parameter shannonEntropyInBits returns a value of the Shannon entropy in bits.

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4. Built-in validators for localization:
   • ValidIf(str => str.AllCyrillic(), ... - true, if there are only Cyrillic symbols.
   • ValidIf(str => str.HasCyrillic(), ... - true, if there is at least one Cyrillic symbol.
   • ValidIf(str => str.AllCyrillicSupplement(), ... - true, if there are only Cyrillic symbols from Cyrillic Supplement that's a Unicode block containing Cyrillic letters for writing several minority languages, including Abkhaz, Kurdish, Komi, Mordvin, Aleut, Azerbaijani, and Jakovlev's Chuvash orthography.
   • ValidIf(str => str.AllBasicLatin(), ... - true, if there are only Latin symbols.
   • ValidIf(str => str.HasBasicLatin(), ... - true, if there is at least one Latin symbols.

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5. Error message format

The error message for each validator can be formatted with checked data that may be filled in when the error message is constructed.

The ErrorId() and ValidIf() have two possibilities to return some error message:

• as a simple string - ErrorIf(eml => eml.IsEmail(), "Invalid email.")
• as a formatted string - ErrorIf(eml => eml.IsEmail(), eml => "Email {eml} is invalid.")

6. Native AOT

Yes, it is ready for Native AOT.
Repository contains an example with the usage of Minimal API + FlatValidator in Native AOT approach.

Benchmarks

Installation

Install the FlatValidator from NuGet:

❯ dotnet add package FlatValidator

If installing into an ASP.NET Core project, consider using the FlatValidator.DependencyInjection package that adds extensions specific to ASP.NET Core

❯ dotnet add package FlatValidator.DependencyInjection

Release Notes and Change Log

Release notes can be found on GitHub.

Supporting the project

If you like my activities, it may be great to give me a ⭐ and/or share this link 🤗

The FlatValidator is developed and supported by @belset for free in spare time, so that financial help keeps the projects to be going successfully.

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