Sequentially

This constraint allows you to apply a set of rules that should be validated step-by-step, allowing to interrupt the validation once the first violation is raised.

As an alternative in situations Sequentially cannot solve, you may consider using GroupSequence which allows more control.

New in version 5.1: The Sequentially constraint was introduced in Symfony 5.1.

Applies to property or method
Options
Class Sequentially
Validator SequentiallyValidator

Basic Usage

Suppose that you have a Place object with an $address property which must match the following requirements:

  • it’s a non-blank string
  • of at least 10 chars long
  • with a specific format
  • and geolocalizable using an external service

In such situations, you may encounter three issues:

  • the Length or Regex constraints may fail hard with a UnexpectedValueException exception if the actual value is not a string, as enforced by Type.
  • you may end with multiple error messages for the same property
  • you may perform a useless and heavy external call to geolocalize the address, while the format isn’t valid.

You can validate each of these constraints sequentially to solve these issues:

  • Annotations
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    // src/Localization/Place.php
namespace App\Localization;

use App\Validator\Constraints as AcmeAssert;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

class Place
{
    /**
     * @var string
     *
     * @Assert\Sequentially({
     *     @Assert\NotNull(),
     *     @Assert\Type("string"),
     *     @Assert\Length(min=10),
     *     @Assert\Regex(Place::ADDRESS_REGEX),
     *     @AcmeAssert\Geolocalizable(),
     * })
     */
    public $address;
}
  • YAML
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    # config/validator/validation.yaml
App\Localization\Place:
    properties:
        address:
            - Sequentially:
                - NotNull: ~
                - Type: string
                - Length: { min: 10 }
                - Regex: !php/const App\Localization\Place::ADDRESS_REGEX
                - App\Validator\Constraints\Geolocalizable: ~
  • XML
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    <!-- config/validator/validation.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<constraint-mapping xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/constraint-mapping"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/constraint-mapping https://symfony.com/schema/dic/constraint-mapping/constraint-mapping-1.0.xsd">

    <class name="App\Localization\Place">
        <property name="address">
            <constraint name="Sequentially">
                    <constraint name="NotNull"/>
                    <constraint name="Type">string</constraint>
                    <constraint name="Length">
                        <option name="min">10</option>
                    </constraint>
                    <constraint name="Regex">
                        <option name="pattern">/address-regex/</option>
                    </constraint>
                    <constraint name="App\Validator\Constraints\Geolocalizable"/>
            </constraint>
        </property>
    </class>
</constraint-mapping>
  • PHP
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    // src/Localization/Place.php
namespace App\Localization;

use App\Validator\Constraints as AcmeAssert;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Mapping\ClassMetadata;

class Place
{
    public static function loadValidatorMetadata(ClassMetadata $metadata)
    {
        $metadata->addPropertyConstraint('address', new Assert\Sequentially([
            new Assert\NotNull(),
            new Assert\Type("string"),
            new Assert\Length(['min' => 10]),
            new Assert\Regex(self::ADDRESS_REGEX),
            new AcmeAssert\Geolocalizable(),
        ]));
    }
}

Options

constraints

type: array [default option]

This required option is the array of validation constraints that you want to apply sequentially.

groups

type: array | string

It defines the validation group or groups this constraint belongs to. Read more about validation groups.

payload

type: mixed default: null

This option can be used to attach arbitrary domain-specific data to a constraint. The configured payload is not used by the Validator component, but its processing is completely up to you.

For example, you may want to use several error levels to present failed constraints differently in the front-end depending on the severity of the error.