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266<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../tutorial/conclusion.html">Conclusion</a></li>
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319<li class="toctree-l2 current"><a class="current reference internal" href="#">Form Validation</a></li>
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344<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../database/index.html">Database Reference</a><ul>
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350<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../database/helpers.html">Query Helper Functions</a></li>
351<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../database/query_builder.html">Query Builder Class</a></li>
352<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../database/transactions.html">Transactions</a></li>
353<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../database/metadata.html">Getting MetaData</a></li>
354<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../database/call_function.html">Custom Function Calls</a></li>
355<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../database/caching.html">Query Caching</a></li>
356<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../database/forge.html">Database Manipulation with Database Forge</a></li>
357<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../database/utilities.html">Database Utilities Class</a></li>
358<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="../database/db_driver_reference.html">Database Driver Reference</a></li>
359</ul>
360</li>
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363<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../helpers/index.html">Helpers</a><ul>
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385</ul>
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388
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391 </div>
392 &nbsp;
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394
395 <section data-toggle="wy-nav-shift" class="wy-nav-content-wrap">
396
397
398 <nav class="wy-nav-top" role="navigation" aria-label="top navigation">
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400 <a href="../index.html">CodeIgniter</a>
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409 <li><a href="../index.html">Docs</a> &raquo;</li>
410
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412
413 <li>Form Validation</li>
414 <li class="wy-breadcrumbs-aside">
415
416 </li>
417 <div style="float:right;margin-left:5px;" id="closeMe">
418 <img title="Classic Layout" alt="classic layout" src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhFAAUAJEAAAAAADMzM////wAAACH5BAUUAAIALAAAAAAUABQAAAImlI+py+0PU5gRBRDM3DxbWoXis42X13USOLauUIqnlsaH/eY6UwAAOw==" />
419 </div>
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423 <div role="main" class="document">
424
425 <div class="section" id="form-validation">
426<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6">Form Validation</a><a class="headerlink" href="#form-validation" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h1>
427<p>CodeIgniter provides a comprehensive form validation and data prepping
428class that helps minimize the amount of code you’ll write.</p>
429<div class="contents topic" id="page-contents">
430<p class="topic-title first">Page Contents</p>
431<ul class="simple">
432<li><a class="reference internal" href="#form-validation" id="id6">Form Validation</a><ul>
433<li><a class="reference internal" href="#overview" id="id7">Overview</a></li>
434<li><a class="reference internal" href="#form-validation-tutorial" id="id8">Form Validation Tutorial</a><ul>
435<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-form" id="id9">The Form</a></li>
436<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-success-page" id="id10">The Success Page</a></li>
437<li><a class="reference internal" href="#the-controller" id="id11">The Controller</a></li>
438<li><a class="reference internal" href="#try-it" id="id12">Try it!</a></li>
439<li><a class="reference internal" href="#explanation" id="id13">Explanation</a></li>
440<li><a class="reference internal" href="#setting-validation-rules" id="id14">Setting Validation Rules</a></li>
441<li><a class="reference internal" href="#setting-rules-using-an-array" id="id15">Setting Rules Using an Array</a></li>
442<li><a class="reference internal" href="#cascading-rules" id="id16">Cascading Rules</a></li>
443<li><a class="reference internal" href="#prepping-data" id="id17">Prepping Data</a></li>
444<li><a class="reference internal" href="#re-populating-the-form" id="id18">Re-populating the form</a></li>
445<li><a class="reference internal" href="#callbacks-your-own-validation-methods" id="id19">Callbacks: Your own Validation Methods</a></li>
446<li><a class="reference internal" href="#callable-use-anything-as-a-rule" id="id20">Callable: Use anything as a rule</a></li>
447<li><a class="reference internal" href="#setting-error-messages" id="id21">Setting Error Messages</a></li>
448<li><a class="reference internal" href="#translating-field-names" id="id22">Translating Field Names</a></li>
449<li><a class="reference internal" href="#changing-the-error-delimiters" id="id23">Changing the Error Delimiters</a></li>
450<li><a class="reference internal" href="#showing-errors-individually" id="id24">Showing Errors Individually</a></li>
451<li><a class="reference internal" href="#validating-an-array-other-than-post" id="id25">Validating an Array (other than $_POST)</a></li>
452</ul>
453</li>
454<li><a class="reference internal" href="#saving-sets-of-validation-rules-to-a-config-file" id="id26">Saving Sets of Validation Rules to a Config File</a><ul>
455<li><a class="reference internal" href="#how-to-save-your-rules" id="id27">How to save your rules</a></li>
456<li><a class="reference internal" href="#creating-sets-of-rules" id="id28">Creating Sets of Rules</a></li>
457<li><a class="reference internal" href="#calling-a-specific-rule-group" id="id29">Calling a Specific Rule Group</a></li>
458<li><a class="reference internal" href="#associating-a-controller-method-with-a-rule-group" id="id30">Associating a Controller Method with a Rule Group</a></li>
459</ul>
460</li>
461<li><a class="reference internal" href="#using-arrays-as-field-names" id="id31">Using Arrays as Field Names</a></li>
462<li><a class="reference internal" href="#rule-reference" id="id32">Rule Reference</a></li>
463<li><a class="reference internal" href="#prepping-reference" id="id33">Prepping Reference</a></li>
464<li><a class="reference internal" href="#class-reference" id="id34">Class Reference</a></li>
465<li><a class="reference internal" href="#helper-reference" id="id35">Helper Reference</a></li>
466</ul>
467</li>
468</ul>
469</div>
470<div class="section" id="overview">
471<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7">Overview</a><a class="headerlink" href="#overview" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
472<p>Before explaining CodeIgniter’s approach to data validation, let’s
473describe the ideal scenario:</p>
474<ol class="arabic simple">
475<li>A form is displayed.</li>
476<li>You fill it in and submit it.</li>
477<li>If you submitted something invalid, or perhaps missed a required
478item, the form is redisplayed containing your data along with an
479error message describing the problem.</li>
480<li>This process continues until you have submitted a valid form.</li>
481</ol>
482<p>On the receiving end, the script must:</p>
483<ol class="arabic simple">
484<li>Check for required data.</li>
485<li>Verify that the data is of the correct type, and meets the correct
486criteria. For example, if a username is submitted it must be
487validated to contain only permitted characters. It must be of a
488minimum length, and not exceed a maximum length. The username can’t
489be someone else’s existing username, or perhaps even a reserved word.
490Etc.</li>
491<li>Sanitize the data for security.</li>
492<li>Pre-format the data if needed (Does the data need to be trimmed? HTML
493encoded? Etc.)</li>
494<li>Prep the data for insertion in the database.</li>
495</ol>
496<p>Although there is nothing terribly complex about the above process, it
497usually requires a significant amount of code, and to display error
498messages, various control structures are usually placed within the form
499HTML. Form validation, while simple to create, is generally very messy
500and tedious to implement.</p>
501</div>
502<div class="section" id="form-validation-tutorial">
503<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8">Form Validation Tutorial</a><a class="headerlink" href="#form-validation-tutorial" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
504<p>What follows is a “hands on” tutorial for implementing CodeIgniters Form
505Validation.</p>
506<p>In order to implement form validation you’ll need three things:</p>
507<ol class="arabic simple">
508<li>A <a class="reference internal" href="../general/views.html"><span class="doc">View</span></a> file containing a form.</li>
509<li>A View file containing a “success” message to be displayed upon
510successful submission.</li>
511<li>A <a class="reference internal" href="../general/controllers.html"><span class="doc">controller</span></a> method to receive and
512process the submitted data.</li>
513</ol>
514<p>Let’s create those three things, using a member sign-up form as the
515example.</p>
516<div class="section" id="the-form">
517<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9">The Form</a><a class="headerlink" href="#the-form" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
518<p>Using a text editor, create a form called myform.php. In it, place this
519code and save it to your application/views/ folder:</p>
520<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">html</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
521<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">head</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
522<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">title</span><span class="o">&gt;</span><span class="nx">My</span> <span class="nx">Form</span><span class="o">&lt;/</span><span class="nx">title</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
523<span class="o">&lt;/</span><span class="nx">head</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
524<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">body</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
525
526<span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">validation_errors</span><span class="p">();</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
527
528<span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">form_open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;form&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
529
530<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Username<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
531<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;username&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
532
533<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Password<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
534<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;password&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
535
536<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Password Confirm<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
537<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;passconf&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
538
539<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Email Address<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
540<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;email&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
541
542<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">div</span><span class="p">&gt;&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;submit&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;Submit&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;&lt;/</span><span class="nt">div</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
543
544<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">form</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
545
546<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">body</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
547<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">html</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
548</pre></div>
549</div>
550</div>
551<div class="section" id="the-success-page">
552<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10">The Success Page</a><a class="headerlink" href="#the-success-page" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
553<p>Using a text editor, create a form called formsuccess.php. In it, place
554this code and save it to your application/views/ folder:</p>
555<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">html</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
556<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">head</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
557<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">title</span><span class="o">&gt;</span><span class="nx">My</span> <span class="nx">Form</span><span class="o">&lt;/</span><span class="nx">title</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
558<span class="o">&lt;/</span><span class="nx">head</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
559<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">body</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
560
561<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">h3</span><span class="o">&gt;</span><span class="nx">Your</span> <span class="nx">form</span> <span class="nx">was</span> <span class="nx">successfully</span> <span class="nx">submitted</span><span class="o">!&lt;/</span><span class="nx">h3</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
562
563<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">p</span><span class="o">&gt;&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">anchor</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;form&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Try it again!&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span><span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">p</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
564
565<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">body</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
566<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">html</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
567</pre></div>
568</div>
569</div>
570<div class="section" id="the-controller">
571<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11">The Controller</a><a class="headerlink" href="#the-controller" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
572<p>Using a text editor, create a controller called Form.php. In it, place
573this code and save it to your application/controllers/ folder:</p>
574<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span>
575
576<span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Form</span> <span class="k">extends</span> <span class="nx">CI_Controller</span> <span class="p">{</span>
577
578 <span class="k">public</span> <span class="k">function</span> <span class="nf">index</span><span class="p">()</span>
579 <span class="p">{</span>
580 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">helper</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;form&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;url&#39;</span><span class="p">));</span>
581
582 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">library</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;form_validation&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
583
584 <span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">run</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="k">FALSE</span><span class="p">)</span>
585 <span class="p">{</span>
586 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">view</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;myform&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
587 <span class="p">}</span>
588 <span class="k">else</span>
589 <span class="p">{</span>
590 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">view</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;formsuccess&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
591 <span class="p">}</span>
592 <span class="p">}</span>
593<span class="p">}</span>
594</pre></div>
595</div>
596</div>
597<div class="section" id="try-it">
598<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12">Try it!</a><a class="headerlink" href="#try-it" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
599<p>To try your form, visit your site using a URL similar to this one:</p>
600<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nx">example</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nx">com</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="nx">index</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="nx">php</span><span class="o">/</span><span class="nx">form</span><span class="o">/</span>
601</pre></div>
602</div>
603<p>If you submit the form you should simply see the form reload. That’s
604because you haven’t set up any validation rules yet.</p>
605<p><strong>Since you haven’t told the Form Validation class to validate anything
606yet, it returns FALSE (boolean false) by default. ``The run()`` method
607only returns TRUE if it has successfully applied your rules without any
608of them failing.</strong></p>
609</div>
610<div class="section" id="explanation">
611<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13">Explanation</a><a class="headerlink" href="#explanation" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
612<p>You’ll notice several things about the above pages:</p>
613<p>The form (myform.php) is a standard web form with a couple exceptions:</p>
614<ol class="arabic">
615<li><p class="first">It uses a form helper to create the form opening. Technically, this
616isn’t necessary. You could create the form using standard HTML.
617However, the benefit of using the helper is that it generates the
618action URL for you, based on the URL in your config file. This makes
619your application more portable in the event your URLs change.</p>
620</li>
621<li><p class="first">At the top of the form you’ll notice the following function call:</p>
622<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">validation_errors</span><span class="p">();</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
623</pre></div>
624</div>
625<p>This function will return any error messages sent back by the
626validator. If there are no messages it returns an empty string.</p>
627</li>
628</ol>
629<p>The controller (Form.php) has one method: <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">index()</span></code>. This method
630initializes the validation class and loads the form helper and URL
631helper used by your view files. It also runs the validation routine.
632Based on whether the validation was successful it either presents the
633form or the success page.</p>
634</div>
635<div class="section" id="setting-validation-rules">
636<span id="id1"></span><h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14">Setting Validation Rules</a><a class="headerlink" href="#setting-validation-rules" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
637<p>CodeIgniter lets you set as many validation rules as you need for a
638given field, cascading them in order, and it even lets you prep and
639pre-process the field data at the same time. To set validation rules you
640will use the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_rules()</span></code> method:</p>
641<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">();</span>
642</pre></div>
643</div>
644<p>The above method takes <strong>three</strong> parameters as input:</p>
645<ol class="arabic simple">
646<li>The field name - the exact name you’ve given the form field.</li>
647<li>A “human” name for this field, which will be inserted into the error
648message. For example, if your field is named “user” you might give it
649a human name of “Username”.</li>
650<li>The validation rules for this form field.</li>
651<li>(optional) Set custom error messages on any rules given for current field. If not provided will use the default one.</li>
652</ol>
653<div class="admonition note">
654<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
655<p class="last">If you would like the field name to be stored in a language
656file, please see <a class="reference internal" href="#translating-field-names"><span class="std std-ref">Translating Field Names</span></a>.</p>
657</div>
658<p>Here is an example. In your controller (Form.php), add this code just
659below the validation initialization method:</p>
660<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
661<span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
662<span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password Confirmation&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
663<span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
664</pre></div>
665</div>
666<p>Your controller should now look like this:</p>
667<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span>
668
669<span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Form</span> <span class="k">extends</span> <span class="nx">CI_Controller</span> <span class="p">{</span>
670
671 <span class="k">public</span> <span class="k">function</span> <span class="nf">index</span><span class="p">()</span>
672 <span class="p">{</span>
673 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">helper</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;form&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;url&#39;</span><span class="p">));</span>
674
675 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">library</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;form_validation&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
676
677 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
678 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
679 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;You must provide a %s.&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
680 <span class="p">);</span>
681 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password Confirmation&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
682 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
683
684 <span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">run</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="k">FALSE</span><span class="p">)</span>
685 <span class="p">{</span>
686 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">view</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;myform&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
687 <span class="p">}</span>
688 <span class="k">else</span>
689 <span class="p">{</span>
690 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">view</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;formsuccess&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
691 <span class="p">}</span>
692 <span class="p">}</span>
693<span class="p">}</span>
694</pre></div>
695</div>
696<p>Now submit the form with the fields blank and you should see the error
697messages. If you submit the form with all the fields populated you’ll
698see your success page.</p>
699<div class="admonition note">
700<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
701<p class="last">The form fields are not yet being re-populated with the data
702when there is an error. We’ll get to that shortly.</p>
703</div>
704</div>
705<div class="section" id="setting-rules-using-an-array">
706<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15">Setting Rules Using an Array</a><a class="headerlink" href="#setting-rules-using-an-array" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
707<p>Before moving on it should be noted that the rule setting method can
708be passed an array if you prefer to set all your rules in one action. If
709you use this approach, you must name your array keys as indicated:</p>
710<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
711 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
712 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
713 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
714 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
715 <span class="p">),</span>
716 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
717 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
718 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
719 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
720 <span class="s1">&#39;errors&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
721 <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;You must provide a %s.&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
722 <span class="p">),</span>
723 <span class="p">),</span>
724 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
725 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
726 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password Confirmation&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
727 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
728 <span class="p">),</span>
729 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
730 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
731 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
732 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
733 <span class="p">)</span>
734<span class="p">);</span>
735
736<span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$config</span><span class="p">);</span>
737</pre></div>
738</div>
739</div>
740<div class="section" id="cascading-rules">
741<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id16">Cascading Rules</a><a class="headerlink" href="#cascading-rules" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
742<p>CodeIgniter lets you pipe multiple rules together. Let’s try it. Change
743your rules in the third parameter of rule setting method, like this:</p>
744<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span>
745 <span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
746 <span class="s1">&#39;required|min_length[5]|max_length[12]|is_unique[users.username]&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
747 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
748 <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;You have not provided %s.&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
749 <span class="s1">&#39;is_unique&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;This %s already exists.&#39;</span>
750 <span class="p">)</span>
751<span class="p">);</span>
752<span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
753<span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password Confirmation&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required|matches[password]&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
754<span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required|valid_email|is_unique[users.email]&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
755</pre></div>
756</div>
757<p>The above code sets the following rules:</p>
758<ol class="arabic simple">
759<li>The username field be no shorter than 5 characters and no longer than
76012.</li>
761<li>The password field must match the password confirmation field.</li>
762<li>The email field must contain a valid email address.</li>
763</ol>
764<p>Give it a try! Submit your form without the proper data and you’ll see
765new error messages that correspond to your new rules. There are numerous
766rules available which you can read about in the validation reference.</p>
767<div class="admonition note">
768<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
769<p>You can also pass an array of rules to <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_rules()</span></code>,
770instead of a string. Example:</p>
771<div class="last highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;min_length[5]&#39;</span><span class="p">));</span>
772</pre></div>
773</div>
774</div>
775</div>
776<div class="section" id="prepping-data">
777<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id17">Prepping Data</a><a class="headerlink" href="#prepping-data" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
778<p>In addition to the validation method like the ones we used above, you
779can also prep your data in various ways. For example, you can set up
780rules like this:</p>
781<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;trim|required|min_length[5]|max_length[12]&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
782<span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;trim|required|min_length[8]&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
783<span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password Confirmation&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;trim|required|matches[password]&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
784<span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;trim|required|valid_email&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
785</pre></div>
786</div>
787<p>In the above example, we are “trimming” the fields, checking for length
788where necessary and making sure that both password fields match.</p>
789<p><strong>Any native PHP function that accepts one parameter can be used as a
790rule, like ``htmlspecialchars()``, ``trim()``, etc.</strong></p>
791<div class="admonition note">
792<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
793<p class="last">You will generally want to use the prepping functions
794<strong>after</strong> the validation rules so if there is an error, the
795original data will be shown in the form.</p>
796</div>
797</div>
798<div class="section" id="re-populating-the-form">
799<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id18">Re-populating the form</a><a class="headerlink" href="#re-populating-the-form" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
800<p>Thus far we have only been dealing with errors. It’s time to repopulate
801the form field with the submitted data. CodeIgniter offers several
802helper functions that permit you to do this. The one you will use most
803commonly is:</p>
804<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nx">set_value</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;field name&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
805</pre></div>
806</div>
807<p>Open your myform.php view file and update the <strong>value</strong> in each field
808using the <a class="reference internal" href="../helpers/form_helper.html#set_value" title="set_value"><code class="xref php php-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_value()</span></code></a> function:</p>
809<p><strong>Don’t forget to include each field name in the :php:func:`set_value()`
810function calls!</strong></p>
811<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">html</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
812<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">head</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
813<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">title</span><span class="o">&gt;</span><span class="nx">My</span> <span class="nx">Form</span><span class="o">&lt;/</span><span class="nx">title</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
814<span class="o">&lt;/</span><span class="nx">head</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
815<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">body</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
816
817<span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">validation_errors</span><span class="p">();</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
818
819<span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">form_open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;form&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
820
821<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Username<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
822<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;username&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;</span><span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">set_value</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span><span class="s">&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
823
824<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Password<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
825<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;password&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;</span><span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">set_value</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span><span class="s">&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
826
827<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Password Confirm<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
828<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;passconf&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;</span><span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">set_value</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span><span class="s">&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
829
830<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Email Address<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
831<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;email&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;</span><span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">set_value</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span><span class="s">&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
832
833<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">div</span><span class="p">&gt;&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;submit&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;Submit&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;&lt;/</span><span class="nt">div</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
834
835<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">form</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
836
837<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">body</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
838<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">html</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
839</pre></div>
840</div>
841<p>Now reload your page and submit the form so that it triggers an error.
842Your form fields should now be re-populated</p>
843<div class="admonition note">
844<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
845<p class="last">The <a class="reference internal" href="#class-reference"><span class="std std-ref">Class Reference</span></a> section below
846contains methods that permit you to re-populate &lt;select&gt; menus,
847radio buttons, and checkboxes.</p>
848</div>
849<div class="admonition important">
850<p class="first admonition-title">Important</p>
851<p>If you use an array as the name of a form field, you
852must supply it as an array to the function. Example:</p>
853<div class="last highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">input</span> <span class="nx">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="nx">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;colors[]&quot;</span> <span class="nx">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;&lt;?php echo set_value(&#39;colors[]&#39;); ?&gt;&quot;</span> <span class="nx">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="o">/&gt;</span>
854</pre></div>
855</div>
856</div>
857<p>For more info please see the <a class="reference internal" href="#using-arrays-as-field-names"><span class="std std-ref">Using Arrays as Field Names</span></a> section below.</p>
858</div>
859<div class="section" id="callbacks-your-own-validation-methods">
860<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id19">Callbacks: Your own Validation Methods</a><a class="headerlink" href="#callbacks-your-own-validation-methods" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
861<p>The validation system supports callbacks to your own validation
862methods. This permits you to extend the validation class to meet your
863needs. For example, if you need to run a database query to see if the
864user is choosing a unique username, you can create a callback method
865that does that. Let’s create an example of this.</p>
866<p>In your controller, change the “username” rule to this:</p>
867<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;callback_username_check&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
868</pre></div>
869</div>
870<p>Then add a new method called <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">username_check()</span></code> to your controller.
871Here’s how your controller should now look:</p>
872<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span>
873
874<span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Form</span> <span class="k">extends</span> <span class="nx">CI_Controller</span> <span class="p">{</span>
875
876 <span class="k">public</span> <span class="k">function</span> <span class="nf">index</span><span class="p">()</span>
877 <span class="p">{</span>
878 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">helper</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;form&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;url&#39;</span><span class="p">));</span>
879
880 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">library</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;form_validation&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
881
882 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;callback_username_check&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
883 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
884 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password Confirmation&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
885 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required|is_unique[users.email]&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
886
887 <span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">run</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="k">FALSE</span><span class="p">)</span>
888 <span class="p">{</span>
889 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">view</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;myform&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
890 <span class="p">}</span>
891 <span class="k">else</span>
892 <span class="p">{</span>
893 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">view</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;formsuccess&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
894 <span class="p">}</span>
895 <span class="p">}</span>
896
897 <span class="k">public</span> <span class="k">function</span> <span class="nf">username_check</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$str</span><span class="p">)</span>
898 <span class="p">{</span>
899 <span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$str</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s1">&#39;test&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
900 <span class="p">{</span>
901 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_message</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;username_check&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;The {field} field can not be the word &quot;test&quot;&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
902 <span class="k">return</span> <span class="k">FALSE</span><span class="p">;</span>
903 <span class="p">}</span>
904 <span class="k">else</span>
905 <span class="p">{</span>
906 <span class="k">return</span> <span class="k">TRUE</span><span class="p">;</span>
907 <span class="p">}</span>
908 <span class="p">}</span>
909
910<span class="p">}</span>
911</pre></div>
912</div>
913<p>Reload your form and submit it with the word “test” as the username. You
914can see that the form field data was passed to your callback method
915for you to process.</p>
916<p>To invoke a callback just put the method name in a rule, with
917“callback_” as the rule <strong>prefix</strong>. If you need to receive an extra
918parameter in your callback method, just add it normally after the
919method name between square brackets, as in: <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">callback_foo[bar]</span></code>,
920then it will be passed as the second argument of your callback method.</p>
921<div class="admonition note">
922<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
923<p class="last">You can also process the form data that is passed to your
924callback and return it. If your callback returns anything other than a
925boolean TRUE/FALSE it is assumed that the data is your newly processed
926form data.</p>
927</div>
928</div>
929<div class="section" id="callable-use-anything-as-a-rule">
930<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id20">Callable: Use anything as a rule</a><a class="headerlink" href="#callable-use-anything-as-a-rule" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
931<p>If callback rules aren’t good enough for you (for example, because they are
932limited to your controller), don’t get disappointed, there’s one more way
933to create custom rules: anything that <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">is_callable()</span></code> would return TRUE for.</p>
934<p>Consider the following example:</p>
935<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span>
936 <span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
937 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
938 <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
939 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">users_model</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;valid_username&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
940 <span class="p">)</span>
941<span class="p">);</span>
942</pre></div>
943</div>
944<p>The above code would use the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">valid_username()</span></code> method from your
945<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Users_model</span></code> object.</p>
946<p>This is just an example of course, and callbacks aren’t limited to models.
947You can use any object/method that accepts the field value as its’ first
948parameter. You can also use an anonymous function:</p>
949<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span>
950 <span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
951 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
952 <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
953 <span class="k">function</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$value</span><span class="p">)</span>
954 <span class="p">{</span>
955 <span class="c1">// Check $value</span>
956 <span class="p">}</span>
957 <span class="p">)</span>
958<span class="p">);</span>
959</pre></div>
960</div>
961<p>Of course, since a Callable rule by itself is not a string, it isn’t
962a rule name either. That is a problem when you want to set error messages
963for them. In order to get around that problem, you can put such rules as
964the second element of an array, with the first one being the rule name:</p>
965<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span>
966 <span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
967 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
968 <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
969 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;username_callable&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">users_model</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;valid_username&#39;</span><span class="p">))</span>
970 <span class="p">)</span>
971<span class="p">);</span>
972</pre></div>
973</div>
974<p>Anonymous function version:</p>
975<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span>
976 <span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
977 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
978 <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
979 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
980 <span class="s1">&#39;username_callable&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
981 <span class="k">function</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$str</span><span class="p">)</span>
982 <span class="p">{</span>
983 <span class="c1">// Check validity of $str and return TRUE or FALSE</span>
984 <span class="p">}</span>
985 <span class="p">)</span>
986 <span class="p">)</span>
987<span class="p">);</span>
988</pre></div>
989</div>
990</div>
991<div class="section" id="setting-error-messages">
992<span id="id2"></span><h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id21">Setting Error Messages</a><a class="headerlink" href="#setting-error-messages" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
993<p>All of the native error messages are located in the following language
994file: <strong>system/language/english/form_validation_lang.php</strong></p>
995<p>To set your own global custom message for a rule, you can either
996extend/override the language file by creating your own in
997<strong>application/language/english/form_validation_lang.php</strong> (read more
998about this in the <a class="reference internal" href="language.html"><span class="doc">Language Class</span></a> documentation),
999or use the following method:</p>
1000<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_message</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;rule&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Error Message&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
1001</pre></div>
1002</div>
1003<p>If you need to set a custom error message for a particular field on
1004some particular rule, use the set_rules() method:</p>
1005<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;field_name&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Field Label&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;rule1|rule2|rule3&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1006 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;rule2&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Error Message on rule2 for this field_name&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
1007<span class="p">);</span>
1008</pre></div>
1009</div>
1010<p>Where rule corresponds to the name of a particular rule, and Error
1011Message is the text you would like displayed.</p>
1012<p>If you’d like to include a field’s “human” name, or the optional
1013parameter some rules allow for (such as max_length), you can add the
1014<strong>{field}</strong> and <strong>{param}</strong> tags to your message, respectively:</p>
1015<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_message</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;min_length&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;{field} must have at least {param} characters.&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
1016</pre></div>
1017</div>
1018<p>On a field with the human name Username and a rule of min_length[5], an
1019error would display: “Username must have at least 5 characters.”</p>
1020<div class="admonition note">
1021<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
1022<p class="last">The old <cite>sprintf()</cite> method of using <strong>%s</strong> in your error messages
1023will still work, however it will override the tags above. You should
1024use one or the other.</p>
1025</div>
1026<p>In the callback rule example above, the error message was set by passing
1027the name of the method (without the “callback_” prefix):</p>
1028<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_message</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;username_check&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
1029</pre></div>
1030</div>
1031</div>
1032<div class="section" id="translating-field-names">
1033<span id="id3"></span><h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id22">Translating Field Names</a><a class="headerlink" href="#translating-field-names" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
1034<p>If you would like to store the “human” name you passed to the
1035<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_rules()</span></code> method in a language file, and therefore make the name
1036able to be translated, here’s how:</p>
1037<p>First, prefix your “human” name with <strong>lang:</strong>, as in this example:</p>
1038<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;first_name&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;lang:first_name&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
1039</pre></div>
1040</div>
1041<p>Then, store the name in one of your language file arrays (without the
1042prefix):</p>
1043<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$lang</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;first_name&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;First Name&#39;</span><span class="p">;</span>
1044</pre></div>
1045</div>
1046<div class="admonition note">
1047<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
1048<p>If you store your array item in a language file that is not
1049loaded automatically by CI, you’ll need to remember to load it in your
1050controller using:</p>
1051<div class="last highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">lang</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;file_name&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
1052</pre></div>
1053</div>
1054</div>
1055<p>See the <a class="reference internal" href="language.html"><span class="doc">Language Class</span></a> page for more info regarding
1056language files.</p>
1057</div>
1058<div class="section" id="changing-the-error-delimiters">
1059<span id="changing-delimiters"></span><h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id23">Changing the Error Delimiters</a><a class="headerlink" href="#changing-the-error-delimiters" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
1060<p>By default, the Form Validation class adds a paragraph tag (&lt;p&gt;) around
1061each error message shown. You can either change these delimiters
1062globally, individually, or change the defaults in a config file.</p>
1063<ol class="arabic">
1064<li><p class="first"><strong>Changing delimiters Globally</strong>
1065To globally change the error delimiters, in your controller method,
1066just after loading the Form Validation class, add this:</p>
1067<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_error_delimiters</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;&lt;div class=&quot;error&quot;&gt;&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;&lt;/div&gt;&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
1068</pre></div>
1069</div>
1070<p>In this example, we’ve switched to using div tags.</p>
1071</li>
1072<li><p class="first"><strong>Changing delimiters Individually</strong>
1073Each of the two error generating functions shown in this tutorial can
1074be supplied their own delimiters as follows:</p>
1075<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">form_error</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;field name&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;&lt;div class=&quot;error&quot;&gt;&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;&lt;/div&gt;&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
1076</pre></div>
1077</div>
1078<p>Or:</p>
1079<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">validation_errors</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;&lt;div class=&quot;error&quot;&gt;&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;&lt;/div&gt;&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
1080</pre></div>
1081</div>
1082</li>
1083<li><p class="first"><strong>Set delimiters in a config file</strong>
1084You can add your error delimiters in application/config/form_validation.php as follows:</p>
1085<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;error_prefix&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;&lt;div class=&quot;error_prefix&quot;&gt;&#39;</span><span class="p">;</span>
1086<span class="nv">$config</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;error_suffix&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;&lt;/div&gt;&#39;</span><span class="p">;</span>
1087</pre></div>
1088</div>
1089</li>
1090</ol>
1091</div>
1092<div class="section" id="showing-errors-individually">
1093<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id24">Showing Errors Individually</a><a class="headerlink" href="#showing-errors-individually" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
1094<p>If you prefer to show an error message next to each form field, rather
1095than as a list, you can use the <a class="reference internal" href="../helpers/form_helper.html#form_error" title="form_error"><code class="xref php php-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">form_error()</span></code></a> function.</p>
1096<p>Try it! Change your form so that it looks like this:</p>
1097<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">h5</span><span class="o">&gt;</span><span class="nx">Username</span><span class="o">&lt;/</span><span class="nx">h5</span><span class="o">&gt;</span>
1098<span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">form_error</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
1099<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;username&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;</span><span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">set_value</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span><span class="s">&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
1100
1101<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Password<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
1102<span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">form_error</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
1103<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;password&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;</span><span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">set_value</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span><span class="s">&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
1104
1105<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Password Confirm<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
1106<span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">form_error</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
1107<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;passconf&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;</span><span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">set_value</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span><span class="s">&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
1108
1109<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>Email Address<span class="p">&lt;/</span><span class="nt">h5</span><span class="p">&gt;</span>
1110<span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">form_error</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
1111<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;email&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;</span><span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">set_value</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span><span class="s">&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
1112</pre></div>
1113</div>
1114<p>If there are no errors, nothing will be shown. If there is an error, the
1115message will appear.</p>
1116<div class="admonition important">
1117<p class="first admonition-title">Important</p>
1118<p>If you use an array as the name of a form field, you
1119must supply it as an array to the function. Example:</p>
1120<div class="last highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">form_error</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;options[size]&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
1121<span class="p">&lt;</span><span class="nt">input</span> <span class="na">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="na">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;options[size]&quot;</span> <span class="na">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;</span><span class="cp">&lt;?php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">set_value</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s2">&quot;options[size]&quot;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span><span class="s">&quot;</span> <span class="na">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="p">/&gt;</span>
1122</pre></div>
1123</div>
1124</div>
1125<p>For more info please see the <a class="reference internal" href="#using-arrays-as-field-names"><span class="std std-ref">Using Arrays as Field Names</span></a> section below.</p>
1126</div>
1127<div class="section" id="validating-an-array-other-than-post">
1128<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id25">Validating an Array (other than $_POST)</a><a class="headerlink" href="#validating-an-array-other-than-post" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
1129<p>Sometimes you may want to validate an array that does not originate from <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">$_POST</span></code> data.</p>
1130<p>In this case, you can specify the array to be validated:</p>
1131<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$data</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1132 <span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;johndoe&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1133 <span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;mypassword&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1134 <span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;mypassword&#39;</span>
1135<span class="p">);</span>
1136
1137<span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_data</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$data</span><span class="p">);</span>
1138</pre></div>
1139</div>
1140<p>Creating validation rules, running the validation, and retrieving error
1141messages works the same whether you are validating <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">$_POST</span></code> data or
1142another array of your choice.</p>
1143<div class="admonition important">
1144<p class="first admonition-title">Important</p>
1145<p class="last">You have to call the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_data()</span></code> method <em>before</em> defining
1146any validation rules.</p>
1147</div>
1148<div class="admonition important">
1149<p class="first admonition-title">Important</p>
1150<p class="last">If you want to validate more than one array during a single
1151execution, then you should call the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">reset_validation()</span></code> method
1152before setting up rules and validating the new array.</p>
1153</div>
1154<p>For more info please see the <a class="reference internal" href="#class-reference"><span class="std std-ref">Class Reference</span></a> section below.</p>
1155</div>
1156</div>
1157<div class="section" id="saving-sets-of-validation-rules-to-a-config-file">
1158<span id="saving-groups"></span><h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id26">Saving Sets of Validation Rules to a Config File</a><a class="headerlink" href="#saving-sets-of-validation-rules-to-a-config-file" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
1159<p>A nice feature of the Form Validation class is that it permits you to
1160store all your validation rules for your entire application in a config
1161file. You can organize these rules into “groups”. These groups can
1162either be loaded automatically when a matching controller/method is
1163called, or you can manually call each set as needed.</p>
1164<div class="section" id="how-to-save-your-rules">
1165<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id27">How to save your rules</a><a class="headerlink" href="#how-to-save-your-rules" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
1166<p>To store your validation rules, simply create a file named
1167form_validation.php in your application/config/ folder. In that file
1168you will place an array named $config with your rules. As shown earlier,
1169the validation array will have this prototype:</p>
1170<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1171 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1172 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1173 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1174 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1175 <span class="p">),</span>
1176 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1177 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1178 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1179 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1180 <span class="p">),</span>
1181 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1182 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1183 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password Confirmation&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1184 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1185 <span class="p">),</span>
1186 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1187 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1188 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1189 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1190 <span class="p">)</span>
1191<span class="p">);</span>
1192</pre></div>
1193</div>
1194<p>Your validation rule file will be loaded automatically and used when you
1195call the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">run()</span></code> method.</p>
1196<p>Please note that you MUST name your <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">$config</span></code> array.</p>
1197</div>
1198<div class="section" id="creating-sets-of-rules">
1199<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id28">Creating Sets of Rules</a><a class="headerlink" href="#creating-sets-of-rules" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
1200<p>In order to organize your rules into “sets” requires that you place them
1201into “sub arrays”. Consider the following example, showing two sets of
1202rules. We’ve arbitrarily called these two rules “signup” and “email”.
1203You can name your rules anything you want:</p>
1204<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1205 <span class="s1">&#39;signup&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1206 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1207 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1208 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1209 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1210 <span class="p">),</span>
1211 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1212 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1213 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1214 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1215 <span class="p">),</span>
1216 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1217 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1218 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password Confirmation&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1219 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1220 <span class="p">),</span>
1221 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1222 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1223 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1224 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1225 <span class="p">)</span>
1226 <span class="p">),</span>
1227 <span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1228 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1229 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;emailaddress&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1230 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;EmailAddress&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1231 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required|valid_email&#39;</span>
1232 <span class="p">),</span>
1233 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1234 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;name&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1235 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Name&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1236 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required|alpha&#39;</span>
1237 <span class="p">),</span>
1238 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1239 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;title&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1240 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Title&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1241 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1242 <span class="p">),</span>
1243 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1244 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;message&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1245 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;MessageBody&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1246 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1247 <span class="p">)</span>
1248 <span class="p">)</span>
1249<span class="p">);</span>
1250</pre></div>
1251</div>
1252</div>
1253<div class="section" id="calling-a-specific-rule-group">
1254<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id29">Calling a Specific Rule Group</a><a class="headerlink" href="#calling-a-specific-rule-group" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
1255<p>In order to call a specific group, you will pass its name to the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">run()</span></code>
1256method. For example, to call the signup rule you will do this:</p>
1257<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">run</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;signup&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="k">FALSE</span><span class="p">)</span>
1258<span class="p">{</span>
1259 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">view</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;myform&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
1260<span class="p">}</span>
1261<span class="k">else</span>
1262<span class="p">{</span>
1263 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">view</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;formsuccess&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
1264<span class="p">}</span>
1265</pre></div>
1266</div>
1267</div>
1268<div class="section" id="associating-a-controller-method-with-a-rule-group">
1269<h3><a class="toc-backref" href="#id30">Associating a Controller Method with a Rule Group</a><a class="headerlink" href="#associating-a-controller-method-with-a-rule-group" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h3>
1270<p>An alternate (and more automatic) method of calling a rule group is to
1271name it according to the controller class/method you intend to use it
1272with. For example, let’s say you have a controller named Member and a
1273method named signup. Here’s what your class might look like:</p>
1274<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span>
1275
1276<span class="k">class</span> <span class="nc">Member</span> <span class="k">extends</span> <span class="nx">CI_Controller</span> <span class="p">{</span>
1277
1278 <span class="k">public</span> <span class="k">function</span> <span class="nf">signup</span><span class="p">()</span>
1279 <span class="p">{</span>
1280 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">library</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;form_validation&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
1281
1282 <span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">run</span><span class="p">()</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="k">FALSE</span><span class="p">)</span>
1283 <span class="p">{</span>
1284 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">view</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;myform&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
1285 <span class="p">}</span>
1286 <span class="k">else</span>
1287 <span class="p">{</span>
1288 <span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">load</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">view</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;formsuccess&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
1289 <span class="p">}</span>
1290 <span class="p">}</span>
1291<span class="p">}</span>
1292</pre></div>
1293</div>
1294<p>In your validation config file, you will name your rule group
1295member/signup:</p>
1296<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$config</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1297 <span class="s1">&#39;member/signup&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1298 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1299 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1300 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Username&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1301 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1302 <span class="p">),</span>
1303 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1304 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1305 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Password&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1306 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1307 <span class="p">),</span>
1308 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1309 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;passconf&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1310 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;PasswordConfirmation&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1311 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1312 <span class="p">),</span>
1313 <span class="k">array</span><span class="p">(</span>
1314 <span class="s1">&#39;field&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1315 <span class="s1">&#39;label&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Email&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
1316 <span class="s1">&#39;rules&#39;</span> <span class="o">=&gt;</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span>
1317 <span class="p">)</span>
1318 <span class="p">)</span>
1319<span class="p">);</span>
1320</pre></div>
1321</div>
1322<p>When a rule group is named identically to a controller class/method it
1323will be used automatically when the <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">run()</span></code> method is invoked from that
1324class/method.</p>
1325</div>
1326</div>
1327<div class="section" id="using-arrays-as-field-names">
1328<span id="id4"></span><h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id31">Using Arrays as Field Names</a><a class="headerlink" href="#using-arrays-as-field-names" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
1329<p>The Form Validation class supports the use of arrays as field names.
1330Consider this example:</p>
1331<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">input</span> <span class="nx">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="nx">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;options[]&quot;</span> <span class="nx">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;&quot;</span> <span class="nx">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="o">/&gt;</span>
1332</pre></div>
1333</div>
1334<p>If you do use an array as a field name, you must use the EXACT array
1335name in the <a class="reference internal" href="#helper-functions"><span class="std std-ref">Helper Functions</span></a> that require the
1336field name, and as your Validation Rule field name.</p>
1337<p>For example, to set a rule for the above field you would use:</p>
1338<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">set_rules</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;options[]&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;Options&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;required&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span>
1339</pre></div>
1340</div>
1341<p>Or, to show an error for the above field you would use:</p>
1342<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">form_error</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;options[]&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
1343</pre></div>
1344</div>
1345<p>Or to re-populate the field you would use:</p>
1346<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">input</span> <span class="nx">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="nx">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;options[]&quot;</span> <span class="nx">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;&lt;?php echo set_value(&#39;options[]&#39;); ?&gt;&quot;</span> <span class="nx">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="o">/&gt;</span>
1347</pre></div>
1348</div>
1349<p>You can use multidimensional arrays as field names as well. For example:</p>
1350<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">input</span> <span class="nx">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="nx">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;options[size]&quot;</span> <span class="nx">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;&quot;</span> <span class="nx">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="o">/&gt;</span>
1351</pre></div>
1352</div>
1353<p>Or even:</p>
1354<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">input</span> <span class="nx">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;text&quot;</span> <span class="nx">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;sports[nba][basketball]&quot;</span> <span class="nx">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;&quot;</span> <span class="nx">size</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;50&quot;</span> <span class="o">/&gt;</span>
1355</pre></div>
1356</div>
1357<p>As with our first example, you must use the exact array name in the
1358helper functions:</p>
1359<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">form_error</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;sports[nba][basketball]&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
1360</pre></div>
1361</div>
1362<p>If you are using checkboxes (or other fields) that have multiple
1363options, don’t forget to leave an empty bracket after each option, so
1364that all selections will be added to the POST array:</p>
1365<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">input</span> <span class="nx">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;checkbox&quot;</span> <span class="nx">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;options[]&quot;</span> <span class="nx">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;red&quot;</span> <span class="o">/&gt;</span>
1366<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">input</span> <span class="nx">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;checkbox&quot;</span> <span class="nx">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;options[]&quot;</span> <span class="nx">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;blue&quot;</span> <span class="o">/&gt;</span>
1367<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">input</span> <span class="nx">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;checkbox&quot;</span> <span class="nx">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;options[]&quot;</span> <span class="nx">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;green&quot;</span> <span class="o">/&gt;</span>
1368</pre></div>
1369</div>
1370<p>Or if you use a multidimensional array:</p>
1371<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">input</span> <span class="nx">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;checkbox&quot;</span> <span class="nx">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;options[color][]&quot;</span> <span class="nx">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;red&quot;</span> <span class="o">/&gt;</span>
1372<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">input</span> <span class="nx">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;checkbox&quot;</span> <span class="nx">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;options[color][]&quot;</span> <span class="nx">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;blue&quot;</span> <span class="o">/&gt;</span>
1373<span class="o">&lt;</span><span class="nx">input</span> <span class="nx">type</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;checkbox&quot;</span> <span class="nx">name</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;options[color][]&quot;</span> <span class="nx">value</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s2">&quot;green&quot;</span> <span class="o">/&gt;</span>
1374</pre></div>
1375</div>
1376<p>When you use a helper function you’ll include the bracket as well:</p>
1377<div class="highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="o">&lt;?</span><span class="nx">php</span> <span class="k">echo</span> <span class="nx">form_error</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;options[color][]&#39;</span><span class="p">);</span> <span class="cp">?&gt;</span>
1378</pre></div>
1379</div>
1380</div>
1381<div class="section" id="rule-reference">
1382<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id32">Rule Reference</a><a class="headerlink" href="#rule-reference" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
1383<p>The following is a list of all the native rules that are available to
1384use:</p>
1385<table border="1" class="docutils">
1386<colgroup>
1387<col width="16%" />
1388<col width="7%" />
1389<col width="61%" />
1390<col width="16%" />
1391</colgroup>
1392<thead valign="bottom">
1393<tr class="row-odd"><th class="head">Rule</th>
1394<th class="head">Parameter</th>
1395<th class="head">Description</th>
1396<th class="head">Example</th>
1397</tr>
1398</thead>
1399<tbody valign="top">
1400<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>required</strong></td>
1401<td>No</td>
1402<td>Returns FALSE if the form element is empty.</td>
1403<td>&#160;</td>
1404</tr>
1405<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>matches</strong></td>
1406<td>Yes</td>
1407<td>Returns FALSE if the form element does not match the one in the parameter.</td>
1408<td>matches[form_item]</td>
1409</tr>
1410<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>regex_match</strong></td>
1411<td>Yes</td>
1412<td>Returns FALSE if the form element does not match the regular expression.</td>
1413<td>regex_match[/regex/]</td>
1414</tr>
1415<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>differs</strong></td>
1416<td>Yes</td>
1417<td>Returns FALSE if the form element does not differ from the one in the parameter.</td>
1418<td>differs[form_item]</td>
1419</tr>
1420<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>is_unique</strong></td>
1421<td>Yes</td>
1422<td>Returns FALSE if the form element is not unique to the table and field name in the
1423parameter. Note: This rule requires <a class="reference internal" href="../database/query_builder.html"><span class="doc">Query Builder</span></a> to be
1424enabled in order to work.</td>
1425<td>is_unique[table.field]</td>
1426</tr>
1427<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>min_length</strong></td>
1428<td>Yes</td>
1429<td>Returns FALSE if the form element is shorter than the parameter value.</td>
1430<td>min_length[3]</td>
1431</tr>
1432<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>max_length</strong></td>
1433<td>Yes</td>
1434<td>Returns FALSE if the form element is longer than the parameter value.</td>
1435<td>max_length[12]</td>
1436</tr>
1437<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>exact_length</strong></td>
1438<td>Yes</td>
1439<td>Returns FALSE if the form element is not exactly the parameter value.</td>
1440<td>exact_length[8]</td>
1441</tr>
1442<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>greater_than</strong></td>
1443<td>Yes</td>
1444<td>Returns FALSE if the form element is less than or equal to the parameter value or not
1445numeric.</td>
1446<td>greater_than[8]</td>
1447</tr>
1448<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>greater_than_equal_to</strong></td>
1449<td>Yes</td>
1450<td>Returns FALSE if the form element is less than the parameter value,
1451or not numeric.</td>
1452<td>greater_than_equal_to[8]</td>
1453</tr>
1454<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>less_than</strong></td>
1455<td>Yes</td>
1456<td>Returns FALSE if the form element is greater than or equal to the parameter value or
1457not numeric.</td>
1458<td>less_than[8]</td>
1459</tr>
1460<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>less_than_equal_to</strong></td>
1461<td>Yes</td>
1462<td>Returns FALSE if the form element is greater than the parameter value,
1463or not numeric.</td>
1464<td>less_than_equal_to[8]</td>
1465</tr>
1466<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>in_list</strong></td>
1467<td>Yes</td>
1468<td>Returns FALSE if the form element is not within a predetermined list.</td>
1469<td>in_list[red,blue,green]</td>
1470</tr>
1471<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>alpha</strong></td>
1472<td>No</td>
1473<td>Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alphabetical characters.</td>
1474<td>&#160;</td>
1475</tr>
1476<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>alpha_numeric</strong></td>
1477<td>No</td>
1478<td>Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alpha-numeric characters.</td>
1479<td>&#160;</td>
1480</tr>
1481<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>alpha_numeric_spaces</strong></td>
1482<td>No</td>
1483<td>Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alpha-numeric characters
1484or spaces. Should be used after trim to avoid spaces at the beginning or end.</td>
1485<td>&#160;</td>
1486</tr>
1487<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>alpha_dash</strong></td>
1488<td>No</td>
1489<td>Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alpha-numeric characters,
1490underscores or dashes.</td>
1491<td>&#160;</td>
1492</tr>
1493<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>numeric</strong></td>
1494<td>No</td>
1495<td>Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than numeric characters.</td>
1496<td>&#160;</td>
1497</tr>
1498<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>integer</strong></td>
1499<td>No</td>
1500<td>Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than an integer.</td>
1501<td>&#160;</td>
1502</tr>
1503<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>decimal</strong></td>
1504<td>No</td>
1505<td>Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than a decimal number.</td>
1506<td>&#160;</td>
1507</tr>
1508<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>is_natural</strong></td>
1509<td>No</td>
1510<td>Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than a natural number:
15110, 1, 2, 3, etc.</td>
1512<td>&#160;</td>
1513</tr>
1514<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>is_natural_no_zero</strong></td>
1515<td>No</td>
1516<td>Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than a natural
1517number, but not zero: 1, 2, 3, etc.</td>
1518<td>&#160;</td>
1519</tr>
1520<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>valid_url</strong></td>
1521<td>No</td>
1522<td>Returns FALSE if the form element does not contain a valid URL.</td>
1523<td>&#160;</td>
1524</tr>
1525<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>valid_email</strong></td>
1526<td>No</td>
1527<td>Returns FALSE if the form element does not contain a valid email address.</td>
1528<td>&#160;</td>
1529</tr>
1530<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>valid_emails</strong></td>
1531<td>No</td>
1532<td>Returns FALSE if any value provided in a comma separated list is not a valid email.</td>
1533<td>&#160;</td>
1534</tr>
1535<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>valid_ip</strong></td>
1536<td>Yes</td>
1537<td>Returns FALSE if the supplied IP address is not valid.
1538Accepts an optional parameter of ‘ipv4’ or ‘ipv6’ to specify an IP format.</td>
1539<td>&#160;</td>
1540</tr>
1541<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>valid_base64</strong></td>
1542<td>No</td>
1543<td>Returns FALSE if the supplied string contains anything other than valid Base64 characters.</td>
1544<td>&#160;</td>
1545</tr>
1546</tbody>
1547</table>
1548<div class="admonition note">
1549<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
1550<p>These rules can also be called as discrete methods. For
1551example:</p>
1552<div class="last highlight-ci"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="nv">$this</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">form_validation</span><span class="o">-&gt;</span><span class="na">required</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">$string</span><span class="p">);</span>
1553</pre></div>
1554</div>
1555</div>
1556<div class="admonition note">
1557<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
1558<p class="last">You can also use any native PHP functions that permit up
1559to two parameters, where at least one is required (to pass
1560the field data).</p>
1561</div>
1562</div>
1563<div class="section" id="prepping-reference">
1564<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id33">Prepping Reference</a><a class="headerlink" href="#prepping-reference" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
1565<p>The following is a list of all the prepping methods that are available
1566to use:</p>
1567<table border="1" class="docutils">
1568<colgroup>
1569<col width="14%" />
1570<col width="6%" />
1571<col width="79%" />
1572</colgroup>
1573<thead valign="bottom">
1574<tr class="row-odd"><th class="head">Name</th>
1575<th class="head">Parameter</th>
1576<th class="head">Description</th>
1577</tr>
1578</thead>
1579<tbody valign="top">
1580<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>prep_for_form</strong></td>
1581<td>No</td>
1582<td>DEPRECATED: Converts special characters so that HTML data can be shown in a form field without breaking it.</td>
1583</tr>
1584<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>prep_url</strong></td>
1585<td>No</td>
1586<td>Adds “http://” to URLs if missing.</td>
1587</tr>
1588<tr class="row-even"><td><strong>strip_image_tags</strong></td>
1589<td>No</td>
1590<td>Strips the HTML from image tags leaving the raw URL.</td>
1591</tr>
1592<tr class="row-odd"><td><strong>encode_php_tags</strong></td>
1593<td>No</td>
1594<td>Converts PHP tags to entities.</td>
1595</tr>
1596</tbody>
1597</table>
1598<div class="admonition note">
1599<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
1600<p class="last">You can also use any native PHP functions that permits one
1601parameter, like <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">trim()</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">htmlspecialchars()</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">urldecode()</span></code>,
1602etc.</p>
1603</div>
1604</div>
1605<div class="section" id="class-reference">
1606<span id="id5"></span><h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id34">Class Reference</a><a class="headerlink" href="#class-reference" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
1607<dl class="class">
1608<dt id="CI_Form_validation">
1609<em class="property">class </em><code class="descname">CI_Form_validation</code><a class="headerlink" href="#CI_Form_validation" title="Permalink to this definition"></a></dt>
1610<dd><dl class="method">
1611<dt id="CI_Form_validation::set_rules">
1612<code class="descname">set_rules</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em>$field</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>$label = ''</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>$rules = ''</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>$errors = array()</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#CI_Form_validation::set_rules" title="Permalink to this definition"></a></dt>
1613<dd><table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
1614<col class="field-name" />
1615<col class="field-body" />
1616<tbody valign="top">
1617<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Parameters:</th><td class="field-body"><ul class="first simple">
1618<li><strong>$field</strong> (<em>string</em>) – Field name</li>
1619<li><strong>$label</strong> (<em>string</em>) – Field label</li>
1620<li><strong>$rules</strong> (<em>mixed</em>) – Validation rules, as a string list separated by a pipe “|”, or as an array or rules</li>
1621<li><strong>$errors</strong> (<em>array</em>) – A list of custom error messages</li>
1622</ul>
1623</td>
1624</tr>
1625<tr class="field-even field"><th class="field-name">Returns:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first">CI_Form_validation instance (method chaining)</p>
1626</td>
1627</tr>
1628<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Return type:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first last">CI_Form_validation</p>
1629</td>
1630</tr>
1631</tbody>
1632</table>
1633<p>Permits you to set validation rules, as described in the tutorial
1634sections above:</p>
1635<ul class="simple">
1636<li><a class="reference internal" href="#setting-validation-rules"><span class="std std-ref">Setting Validation Rules</span></a></li>
1637<li><a class="reference internal" href="#saving-groups"><span class="std std-ref">Saving Sets of Validation Rules to a Config File</span></a></li>
1638</ul>
1639</dd></dl>
1640
1641<dl class="method">
1642<dt id="CI_Form_validation::run">
1643<code class="descname">run</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="optional">[</span><em>$group = ''</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#CI_Form_validation::run" title="Permalink to this definition"></a></dt>
1644<dd><table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
1645<col class="field-name" />
1646<col class="field-body" />
1647<tbody valign="top">
1648<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Parameters:</th><td class="field-body"><ul class="first simple">
1649<li><strong>$group</strong> (<em>string</em>) – The name of the validation group to run</li>
1650</ul>
1651</td>
1652</tr>
1653<tr class="field-even field"><th class="field-name">Returns:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first">TRUE on success, FALSE if validation failed</p>
1654</td>
1655</tr>
1656<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Return type:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first last">bool</p>
1657</td>
1658</tr>
1659</tbody>
1660</table>
1661<p>Runs the validation routines. Returns boolean TRUE on success and FALSE
1662on failure. You can optionally pass the name of the validation group via
1663the method, as described in: <a class="reference internal" href="#saving-groups"><span class="std std-ref">Saving Sets of Validation Rules to a Config File</span></a></p>
1664</dd></dl>
1665
1666<dl class="method">
1667<dt id="CI_Form_validation::set_message">
1668<code class="descname">set_message</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em>$lang</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>$val = ''</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#CI_Form_validation::set_message" title="Permalink to this definition"></a></dt>
1669<dd><table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
1670<col class="field-name" />
1671<col class="field-body" />
1672<tbody valign="top">
1673<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Parameters:</th><td class="field-body"><ul class="first simple">
1674<li><strong>$lang</strong> (<em>string</em>) – The rule the message is for</li>
1675<li><strong>$val</strong> (<em>string</em>) – The message</li>
1676</ul>
1677</td>
1678</tr>
1679<tr class="field-even field"><th class="field-name">Returns:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first">CI_Form_validation instance (method chaining)</p>
1680</td>
1681</tr>
1682<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Return type:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first last">CI_Form_validation</p>
1683</td>
1684</tr>
1685</tbody>
1686</table>
1687<p>Permits you to set custom error messages. See <a class="reference internal" href="#setting-error-messages"><span class="std std-ref">Setting Error Messages</span></a></p>
1688</dd></dl>
1689
1690<dl class="method">
1691<dt id="CI_Form_validation::set_error_delimiters">
1692<code class="descname">set_error_delimiters</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="optional">[</span><em>$prefix = '&lt;p&gt;'</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>$suffix = '&lt;/p&gt;'</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#CI_Form_validation::set_error_delimiters" title="Permalink to this definition"></a></dt>
1693<dd><table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
1694<col class="field-name" />
1695<col class="field-body" />
1696<tbody valign="top">
1697<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Parameters:</th><td class="field-body"><ul class="first simple">
1698<li><strong>$prefix</strong> (<em>string</em>) – Error message prefix</li>
1699<li><strong>$suffix</strong> (<em>string</em>) – Error message suffix</li>
1700</ul>
1701</td>
1702</tr>
1703<tr class="field-even field"><th class="field-name">Returns:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first">CI_Form_validation instance (method chaining)</p>
1704</td>
1705</tr>
1706<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Return type:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first last">CI_Form_validation</p>
1707</td>
1708</tr>
1709</tbody>
1710</table>
1711<p>Sets the default prefix and suffix for error messages.</p>
1712</dd></dl>
1713
1714<dl class="method">
1715<dt id="CI_Form_validation::set_data">
1716<code class="descname">set_data</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em>$data</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#CI_Form_validation::set_data" title="Permalink to this definition"></a></dt>
1717<dd><table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
1718<col class="field-name" />
1719<col class="field-body" />
1720<tbody valign="top">
1721<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Parameters:</th><td class="field-body"><ul class="first simple">
1722<li><strong>$data</strong> (<em>array</em>) – Array of data validate</li>
1723</ul>
1724</td>
1725</tr>
1726<tr class="field-even field"><th class="field-name">Returns:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first">CI_Form_validation instance (method chaining)</p>
1727</td>
1728</tr>
1729<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Return type:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first last">CI_Form_validation</p>
1730</td>
1731</tr>
1732</tbody>
1733</table>
1734<p>Permits you to set an array for validation, instead of using the default
1735<code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">$_POST</span></code> array.</p>
1736</dd></dl>
1737
1738<dl class="method">
1739<dt id="CI_Form_validation::reset_validation">
1740<code class="descname">reset_validation</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#CI_Form_validation::reset_validation" title="Permalink to this definition"></a></dt>
1741<dd><table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
1742<col class="field-name" />
1743<col class="field-body" />
1744<tbody valign="top">
1745<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Returns:</th><td class="field-body">CI_Form_validation instance (method chaining)</td>
1746</tr>
1747<tr class="field-even field"><th class="field-name">Return type:</th><td class="field-body">CI_Form_validation</td>
1748</tr>
1749</tbody>
1750</table>
1751<p>Permits you to reset the validation when you validate more than one array.
1752This method should be called before validating each new array.</p>
1753</dd></dl>
1754
1755<dl class="method">
1756<dt id="CI_Form_validation::error_array">
1757<code class="descname">error_array</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#CI_Form_validation::error_array" title="Permalink to this definition"></a></dt>
1758<dd><table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
1759<col class="field-name" />
1760<col class="field-body" />
1761<tbody valign="top">
1762<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Returns:</th><td class="field-body">Array of error messages</td>
1763</tr>
1764<tr class="field-even field"><th class="field-name">Return type:</th><td class="field-body">array</td>
1765</tr>
1766</tbody>
1767</table>
1768<p>Returns the error messages as an array.</p>
1769</dd></dl>
1770
1771<dl class="method">
1772<dt id="CI_Form_validation::error_string">
1773<code class="descname">error_string</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><span class="optional">[</span><em>$prefix = ''</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>$suffix = ''</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#CI_Form_validation::error_string" title="Permalink to this definition"></a></dt>
1774<dd><table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
1775<col class="field-name" />
1776<col class="field-body" />
1777<tbody valign="top">
1778<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Parameters:</th><td class="field-body"><ul class="first simple">
1779<li><strong>$prefix</strong> (<em>string</em>) – Error message prefix</li>
1780<li><strong>$suffix</strong> (<em>string</em>) – Error message suffix</li>
1781</ul>
1782</td>
1783</tr>
1784<tr class="field-even field"><th class="field-name">Returns:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first">Error messages as a string</p>
1785</td>
1786</tr>
1787<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Return type:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first last">string</p>
1788</td>
1789</tr>
1790</tbody>
1791</table>
1792<p>Returns all error messages (as returned from error_array()) formatted as a
1793string and separated by a newline character.</p>
1794</dd></dl>
1795
1796<dl class="method">
1797<dt id="CI_Form_validation::error">
1798<code class="descname">error</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em>$field</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>$prefix = ''</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>$suffix = ''</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#CI_Form_validation::error" title="Permalink to this definition"></a></dt>
1799<dd><table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
1800<col class="field-name" />
1801<col class="field-body" />
1802<tbody valign="top">
1803<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Parameters:</th><td class="field-body"><ul class="first simple">
1804<li><strong>$field</strong> (<em>string</em>) – Field name</li>
1805<li><strong>$prefix</strong> (<em>string</em>) – Optional prefix</li>
1806<li><strong>$suffix</strong> (<em>string</em>) – Optional suffix</li>
1807</ul>
1808</td>
1809</tr>
1810<tr class="field-even field"><th class="field-name">Returns:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first">Error message string</p>
1811</td>
1812</tr>
1813<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Return type:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first last">string</p>
1814</td>
1815</tr>
1816</tbody>
1817</table>
1818<p>Returns the error message for a specific field, optionally adding a
1819prefix and/or suffix to it (usually HTML tags).</p>
1820</dd></dl>
1821
1822<dl class="method">
1823<dt id="CI_Form_validation::has_rule">
1824<code class="descname">has_rule</code><span class="sig-paren">(</span><em>$field</em><span class="sig-paren">)</span><a class="headerlink" href="#CI_Form_validation::has_rule" title="Permalink to this definition"></a></dt>
1825<dd><table class="docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
1826<col class="field-name" />
1827<col class="field-body" />
1828<tbody valign="top">
1829<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Parameters:</th><td class="field-body"><ul class="first simple">
1830<li><strong>$field</strong> (<em>string</em>) – Field name</li>
1831</ul>
1832</td>
1833</tr>
1834<tr class="field-even field"><th class="field-name">Returns:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first">TRUE if the field has rules set, FALSE if not</p>
1835</td>
1836</tr>
1837<tr class="field-odd field"><th class="field-name">Return type:</th><td class="field-body"><p class="first last">bool</p>
1838</td>
1839</tr>
1840</tbody>
1841</table>
1842<p>Checks to see if there is a rule set for the specified field.</p>
1843</dd></dl>
1844
1845</dd></dl>
1846
1847</div>
1848<div class="section" id="helper-reference">
1849<span id="helper-functions"></span><h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id35">Helper Reference</a><a class="headerlink" href="#helper-reference" title="Permalink to this headline"></a></h2>
1850<p>Please refer to the <a class="reference internal" href="../helpers/form_helper.html"><span class="doc">Form Helper</span></a> manual for
1851the following functions:</p>
1852<ul class="simple">
1853<li><a class="reference internal" href="../helpers/form_helper.html#form_error" title="form_error"><code class="xref php php-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">form_error()</span></code></a></li>
1854<li><a class="reference internal" href="../helpers/form_helper.html#validation_errors" title="validation_errors"><code class="xref php php-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">validation_errors()</span></code></a></li>
1855<li><a class="reference internal" href="../helpers/form_helper.html#set_value" title="set_value"><code class="xref php php-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_value()</span></code></a></li>
1856<li><a class="reference internal" href="../helpers/form_helper.html#set_select" title="set_select"><code class="xref php php-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_select()</span></code></a></li>
1857<li><a class="reference internal" href="../helpers/form_helper.html#set_checkbox" title="set_checkbox"><code class="xref php php-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_checkbox()</span></code></a></li>
1858<li><a class="reference internal" href="../helpers/form_helper.html#set_radio" title="set_radio"><code class="xref php php-func docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_radio()</span></code></a></li>
1859</ul>
1860<p>Note that these are procedural functions, so they <strong>do not</strong> require you
1861to prepend them with <code class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">$this-&gt;form_validation</span></code>.</p>
1862</div>
1863</div>
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1882 <p>
1883 &copy; Copyright 2014 - 2019, British Columbia Institute of Technology.
1884 Last updated on Jan 16, 2019.
1885 </p>
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