Custom Validation in Ecto

Sometimes the standard validation options aren't enough.

You can create a custom validator in Ecto using the validate_change function.

In this particular case, I want to validate that thing has an odd number of limbs. I can pass the changeset to validate_odd_number.

def changeset(thing, attrs) do
  thing
  |> cast(attrs, [
    :number_of_limbs
  ])
  |> validate_odd_number(
    :number_of_limbs
  )
end

And then define validate_odd_number like this:

def validate_odd_number(changeset, field) when is_atom(field) do
  validate_change(changeset, field, fn (current_field, value) ->
    if rem(value, 2) == 0 do
      [{f, "This field must be an odd number"}]
    else 
      []
    end
  end)
end

We pass a function to validate_change that takes the field atom and the value for that field. In that function we test for oddness and return a keyword list that contains the field name and an error message.

Remember that when f is :number_of_limbs:

    [{f, "hi"}] == [number_of_limbs: "hi"]
    # true, these data structures are equal