Fluent Validation

A few days a go i was going through my bookmarks, and came accross this post on the GetPaint.Net blog about using a fluent interface for parameter validation.

After reading the article, I tried the code out at home, and was very impressed. Not only does it read well, but also does not create any objects untill a piece of validation fails. Very nice.

However i wanted to use this at work, and this presented me with a problem. Work only has VS2005, which means no extension methods, which are the crux of how this validation method works.

I spent a while trying to see if it was possible to keep the fluent interface and not instantiate any objects until something fails. In the end i settled for this method which only creates one object.

Public Class Validate

    Public Shared Function Begin() As ValidationExpression
        Return New ValidationExpression
    End Function

    Public Class ValidationExpression

        Private _validation As Validation = Nothing

        Friend Sub New()
        End Sub

        Public Function IsNotNull(Of T)(ByVal obj As T, ByVal name As String) As ValidationExpression
            If obj Is Nothing Then
                Init()
                _validation.AddException(New ArgumentNullException(name))
            End If

            Return Me
        End Function

        Public Function IsPositive(ByVal value As Integer, ByVal name As String) As ValidationExpression

            If value < 0 Then
                Init()
                _validation.AddException(New ArgumentOutOfRangeException(name, "must be positive, but was " & value.ToString))
            End If

            Return Me
        End Function

        Public Function Check() As ValidationExpression

            If _validation Is Nothing Then
                Return Me
            End If

            If _validation.Exceptions.count = 1 Then
                Throw New ValidationException(_validation.Exceptions(0))
            Else
                Throw New ValidationException(New MultiException(_validation.Exceptions))
            End If

        End Function

        Private Sub Init()
            If _validation Is Nothing Then
                _validation = New Validation
            End If
        End Sub

    End Class
End Class

The rest of the code used is identical to Rick Brewster’s Article, so head over there to see it in all its (well written) glory.