Quick Start

Basic Validation

use Solo\Validator\Validator;

$validator = new Validator();

$data = [
    'email' => 'user@example.com',
    'password' => 'secret123',
];

$rules = [
    'email' => 'required|email',
    'password' => 'required|min:8',
];

$errors = $validator->validate($data, $rules);

if ($validator->fails()) {
    print_r($errors);
}

Rule Syntax

Rules are defined as pipe-separated strings:

$rules = [
    'field' => 'rule1|rule2|rule3',
];

Rules can have parameters after a colon:

$rules = [
    'username' => 'required|min:3|max:20',
    'age' => 'required|min_value:18|max_value:120',
    'status' => 'required|in:active,inactive,pending',
];

Checking Results

$validator->validate($data, $rules);

// Check if validation failed
if ($validator->fails()) {
    // Get all errors
    $errors = $validator->errors();
    // ['email' => ['The email must be a valid email address.']]
}

// Check if validation passed
if ($validator->passed()) {
    // Process data
}

Error Structure

Errors are returned as an associative array:

[
    'field_name' => [
        'Error message 1',
        'Error message 2',
    ],
    'another_field' => [
        'Error message',
    ],
]

---

Form Validation Example

$data = $_POST;

$rules = [
    'name' => 'required|min:2|max:50',
    'email' => 'required|email',
    'phone' => 'phone:US',
    'age' => 'required|integer|min_value:18',
    'password' => 'required|min:8',
    'terms' => 'required|boolean',
];

$messages = [
    'name.required' => 'Please enter your name.',
    'email.email' => 'Please provide a valid email address.',
    'terms.required' => 'You must accept the terms.',
];

$errors = $validator->validate($data, $rules, $messages);

if ($validator->fails()) {
    // Return errors to form
    return response()->json(['errors' => $errors], 422);
}

// Process valid data

API Validation Example

$data = json_decode(file_get_contents('php://input'), true);

$rules = [
    'title' => 'required|min:3|max:200',
    'content' => 'required|min:10',
    'status' => 'required|in:draft,published,archived',
    'tags' => 'array',
    'metadata' => 'nullable|array:author,source',
];

$errors = $validator->validate($data, $rules);

if ($validator->fails()) {
    http_response_code(422);
    echo json_encode(['errors' => $errors]);
    exit;
}

Nullable Fields

Use nullable to allow empty values:

$rules = [
    'bio' => 'nullable|max:500',
    'website' => 'nullable|regex:/^https?:\/\//',
];

// These will pass validation:
$data = ['bio' => null, 'website' => ''];
$data = ['bio' => 'Hello!', 'website' => 'https://example.com'];

Next Steps

• Validation Rules — Complete rules reference
• Custom Rules — Create your own rules
• Custom Messages — Customize error messages