Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

Concrete symptoms and their fixes. For the bigger picture see The Validation Lifecycle.

UndefinedRuleException: The validation rule "..." is not defined.

The rule name is unknown. Causes:

• A typo — integerr, requierd, lenght. Fix the spelling.
• A custom rule used before it was registered — call extend() before validation().
• A global function name — 2.0 no longer dispatches to global functions. Wrap it: $v->extend('ctype_digit', fn ($x) => ctype_digit((string) $x));

An optional field still fails validation

optional skips a field only when it is missing or null. An empty string is present, so its rules run.

$v = new Validation(['nick' => '']);
$v->rule('nick', 'optional|alpha');
$v->validation();   // false — '' is present and not alphabetic

Guard on the value first, or allow blanks explicitly. See Optional Fields.

My second validation() only checks the new rules

That is by design — validation() consumes the queue each run. Re-queue any rules you want re-checked. See The Validation Lifecycle.

regex(...) with a comma in it doesn't work

DSL arguments are split on commas, so an inline body like [a-z]{2,4} is broken apart. Register it as a named pattern instead:

$v->pattern('two_to_four', '[a-z]{2,4}');
$v->rule('code', 'regex(two_to_four)');

in() on an array of integers returns false

Array membership is strict, and DSL arguments are always strings, so in(2) looks for the string "2", not the integer 2.

$v = new Validation(['ids' => [1, 2, 3]]);
$v->rule('ids', 'in(2)');     // false — "2" !== 2

For typed arrays, use a callback rule:

$v->rule('ids', static fn ($value): bool => in_array(2, (array) $value, true));

The message shows the raw field name (user_email)

Register a friendly label:

$v->labels(['user_email' => 'E-mail address']);

See Error Messages.

LocaleException when calling setLocale()

The language file was not found. Check that the file exists at <locale-dir>/<locale>.php and returns an array. Point at a custom directory with setLocaleDir() before setLocale().

A manually setError()'d message disappeared

validation() clears the error list at the start of each run. Add manual errors after validating, or in a flow that does not call validation() again. See Error Messages.

min/max measured length when I meant the number

For a numeric value, min/max compare the value; for a non-numeric string they compare the length. A numeric string is treated as a number. If you always want length, use length; for a value range use range.

Next

• FAQ — conceptual questions.
• Exceptions — what each exception means.