ASP.

NET - Validators
ASP.NET validation controls validate the user input data to ensure that useless,
unauthenticated, or contradictory data don't get stored.

ASP.NET provides the following validation controls:

RequiredFieldValidator

RangeValidator
CompareValidator

RegularExpressionValidator

CustomValidator

ValidationSummary

BaseValidator Class
The validation control classes are inherited from the BaseValidator class hence they
inherit its properties and methods. Therefore, it would help to take a look at the
properties and the methods of this base class, which are common for all the
validation controls:

Members Description

ControlToValidate Indicates the input control to validate.

Display Indicates how the error message is shown.

EnableClientScript Indicates whether client side validation will take.

Enabled Enables or disables the validator.

ErrorMessage Indicates error string.

Text Error text to be shown if validation fails.

IsValid Indicates whether the value of the control is valid.

It indicates whether in case of an invalid control, the

SetFocusOnError
focus should switch to the related input control.
 The logical group of multiple validators, where this
ValidationGroup
control belongs.

This method revalidates the control and updates the

Validate()
IsValid property.

RequiredFieldValidator Control
The RequiredFieldValidator control ensures that the required field is not empty. It is
generally tied to a text box to force input into the text box.

The syntax of the control is as given:

<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="rfvcandidate"
runat="server" ControlToValidate ="ddlcandidate"
ErrorMessage="Please choose a candidate"
InitialValue="Please choose a candidate">

</asp:RequiredFieldValidator>

RangeValidator Control
The RangeValidator control verifies that the input value falls within a predetermined
range.

It has three specific properties:

Properties Description

It defines the type of the data. The available values are:

Type
Currency, Date, Double, Integer, and String.

MinimumValue It specifies the minimum value of the range.

MaximumValue It specifies the maximum value of the range.

The syntax of the control is as given:

<asp:RangeValidator ID="rvclass" runat="server" ControlToValidate="txtclass"

ErrorMessage="Enter your class (6 - 12)" MaximumValue="12"
MinimumValue="6" Type="Integer">
 </asp:RangeValidator>

CompareValidator Control
The CompareValidator control compares a value in one control with a fixed value or a
value in another control.

It has the following specific properties:

Properties Description

Type It specifies the data type.

It specifies the value of the input control to compare

ControlToCompare
with.

ValueToCompare It specifies the constant value to compare with.

It specifies the comparison operator, the available values

Operator are: Equal, NotEqual, GreaterThan, GreaterThanEqual,
LessThan, LessThanEqual, and DataTypeCheck.

The basic syntax of the control is as follows:

<asp:CompareValidator ID="CompareValidator1" runat="server"

ErrorMessage="CompareValidator">

</asp:CompareValidator>

RegularExpressionValidator
The RegularExpressionValidator allows validating the input text by matching against
a pattern of a regular expression. The regular expression is set in the
ValidationExpression property.

The following table summarizes the commonly used syntax constructs for regular
expressions:

Character Escapes Description

\b Matches a backspace.
 \t Matches a tab.

\r Matches a carriage return.

\v Matches a vertical tab.

\f Matches a form feed.

\n Matches a new line.

\ Escape character.

Apart from single character match, a class of characters could be specified that can
be matched, called the metacharacters.

Metacharacters Description

. Matches any character except \n.

[abcd] Matches any character in the set.

[^abcd] Excludes any character in the set.

[2-7a-mA-M] Matches any character specified in the range.

\w Matches any alphanumeric character and underscore.

\W Matches any non-word character.

Matches whitespace characters like, space, tab, new line

\s
etc.

\S Matches any non-whitespace character.

\d Matches any decimal character.

\D Matches any non-decimal character.

Quantifiers could be added to specify number of times a character could appear.

Quantifier Description

* Zero or more matches.

+ One or more matches.

? Zero or one matches.

 {N} N matches.

{N,} N or more matches.

{N,M} Between N and M matches.

The syntax of the control is as given:

<asp:RegularExpressionValidator ID="string" runat="server" ErrorMessage="stri

ValidationExpression="string" ValidationGroup="string">

</asp:RegularExpressionValidator>

CustomValidator
The CustomValidator control allows writing application specific custom validation
routines for both the client side and the server side validation.

The client side validation is accomplished through the ClientValidationFunction

property. The client side validation routine should be written in a scripting language,
such as JavaScript or VBScript, which the browser can understand.

The server side validation routine must be called from the control's ServerValidate
event handler. The server side validation routine should be written in any .Net
language, like C# or VB.Net.

The basic syntax for the control is as given:

<asp:CustomValidator ID="CustomValidator1" runat="server"

ClientValidationFunction=.cvf_func. ErrorMessage="CustomValidator">

</asp:CustomValidator>

ValidationSummary
The ValidationSummary control does not perform any validation but shows a
summary of all errors in the page. The summary displays the values of the
ErrorMessage property of all validation controls that failed validation.

The following two mutually inclusive properties list out the error message:
 ShowSummary : shows the error messages in specified format.
ShowMessageBox : shows the error messages in a separate window.

The syntax for the control is as given:

<asp:ValidationSummary ID="ValidationSummary1" runat="server"

DisplayMode = "BulletList" ShowSummary = "true" HeaderText="Errors:" />

Validation Groups
Complex pages have different groups of information provided in different panels. In
such situation, a need might arise for performing validation separately for separate
group. This kind of situation is handled using validation groups.

To create a validation group, you should put the input controls and the validation
controls into the same logical group by setting their ValidationGroup property.

Example
The following example describes a form to be filled up by all the students of a school,
divided into four houses, for electing the school president. Here, we use the
validation controls to validate the user input.

This is the form in design view:

The content file code is as given:

<form id="form1" runat="server">

<table style="width: 66%;">

<tr>
<td class="style1" colspan="3" align="center">
<asp:Label ID="lblmsg"
Text="President Election Form : Choose your president"
runat="server" />
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="style3">
Candidate:
</td>

<td class="style2">
<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlcandidate" runat="server" style="width:
<asp:ListItem>Please Choose a Candidate</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem>M H Kabir</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem>Steve Taylor</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem>John Abraham</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem>Venus Williams</asp:ListItem>
</asp:DropDownList>
</td>

<td>
<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="rfvcandidate"
runat="server" ControlToValidate ="ddlcandidate"
ErrorMessage="Please choose a candidate"
InitialValue="Please choose a candidate">
</asp:RequiredFieldValidator>
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="style3">
House:
</td>

<td class="style2">
<asp:RadioButtonList ID="rblhouse" runat="server" RepeatLayout="F
<asp:ListItem>Red</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem>Blue</asp:ListItem>
 <asp:ListItem>Yellow</asp:ListItem>
<asp:ListItem>Green</asp:ListItem>
</asp:RadioButtonList>
</td>

<td>
<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="rfvhouse" runat="server"
ControlToValidate="rblhouse" ErrorMessage="Enter your house na
</asp:RequiredFieldValidator>
<br />
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="style3">
Class:
</td>

<td class="style2">
<asp:TextBox ID="txtclass" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
</td>

<td>
<asp:RangeValidator ID="rvclass"
runat="server" ControlToValidate="txtclass"
ErrorMessage="Enter your class (6 - 12)" MaximumValue="12"
MinimumValue="6" Type="Integer">
</asp:RangeValidator>
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="style3">
Email:
</td>

<td class="style2">
<asp:TextBox ID="txtemail" runat="server" style="width:250px">
</asp:TextBox>
</td>

<td>
 <asp:RegularExpressionValidator ID="remail" runat="server"
ControlToValidate="txtemail" ErrorMessage="Enter your email"
ValidationExpression="\w+([-+.']\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\
</asp:RegularExpressionValidator>
</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td class="style3" align="center" colspan="3">
<asp:Button ID="btnsubmit" runat="server" onclick="btnsubmit_Clic
style="text-align: center" Text="Submit" style="width:140px" /
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<asp:ValidationSummary ID="ValidationSummary1" runat="server"
DisplayMode ="BulletList" ShowSummary ="true" HeaderText="Errors:" />
</form>

The code behind the submit button:

protected void btnsubmit_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{
if (Page.IsValid)
{
lblmsg.Text = "Thank You";
}
else
{
lblmsg.Text = "Fill up all the fields";
}
}