Manually Execute Validation Attributes

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Most of the times, validation attributes are use inside frameworks (such as ASP.NET). Those frameworks take care of executing the validation attributes. But what if you want to execute validation attributes manually? Just use the Validator class (no reflection needed).

Validation Context

Any validation needs a context to give some information about what is being validated. This can include various information such as the object to be validated, some properties, the name to display in the error message, etc.

ValidationContext vc = new ValidationContext(objectToValidate); // The simplest form of validation context. It contains only a reference to the object being validated.

Once the context is created, there are multiple ways of doing validation.

Validate an Object and All of its Properties

ICollection<ValidationResult> results = new List<ValidationResult>(); // Will contain the results of the validation
bool isValid = Validator.TryValidateObject(objectToValidate, vc, results, true); // Validates the object and its properties using the previously created context.
// The variable isValid will be true if everything is valid
// The results variable contains the results of the validation

Validate a Property of an Object

ICollection<ValidationResult> results = new List<ValidationResult>(); // Will contain the results of the validation
bool isValid = Validator.TryValidatePropery(objectToValidate.PropertyToValidate, vc, results, true); // Validates the property using the previously created context.
// The variable isValid will be true if everything is valid
// The results variable contains the results of the validation

And More

To learn more about manual validation see:

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