Active Record Validations

Active Record includes the majority of its validations from ActiveModel::Validations.

In Active Record, all validations are performed on save by default. Validations accept the :on argument to define the context where the validations are active. Active Record will pass either the context of :create or :update depending on whether the model is a new_record?.

Namespace

Module

Methods

Instance Public methods

save(**options)

The validation process on save can be skipped by passing validate: false. The validation context can be changed by passing context: context. The regular ActiveRecord::Base#save method is replaced with this when the validations module is mixed in, which it is by default.

📝 Source code 
# File activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 47
    def save(**options)
      perform_validations(options) ? super : false
    end
🔎 See on GitHub

save!(**options)

Attempts to save the record just like ActiveRecord::Base#save but will raise an ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid exception instead of returning false if the record is not valid.

📝 Source code 
# File activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 53
    def save!(**options)
      perform_validations(options) ? super : raise_validation_error
    end
🔎 See on GitHub

valid?(context = nil)

Runs all the validations within the specified context. Returns true if no errors are found, false otherwise.

Aliased as validate.

If the argument is false (default is nil), the context is set to :create if new_record? is true, and to :update if it is not. If the argument is an array of contexts, post.valid?([:create, :update]), the validations are run within multiple contexts.

Validations with no :on option will run no matter the context. Validations with some :on option will only run in the specified context.

Also aliased as: validate
📝 Source code 
# File activerecord/lib/active_record/validations.rb, line 69
    def valid?(context = nil)
      context ||= default_validation_context
      output = super(context)
      errors.empty? && output
    end
🔎 See on GitHub

validate(context = nil)

Alias for: valid?