CodeIgniter - Form Validation

Example

Create a view file myform.php and save the below code it in application/views/myform.php. This page will display form where user can submit his name and we will validate this page to ensure that it should not be empty while submitting.

<html>
 
   <head> 
      <title>My Form</title> 
   </head>
	
   <body>
      <form action = "" method = "">
         <?php echo validation_errors(); ?>  
         <?php echo form_open('form'); ?>  
         <h5>Name</h5> 
         <input type = "text" name = "name" value = "" size = "50" />  
         <div><input type = "submit" value = "Submit" /></div>  
      </form>  
   </body>
	
</html>

Create a view file formsuccess.php and save it in application/views/formsuccess.php. This page will be displayed if the form is validated successfully.

<html>
 
   <head> 
      <title>My Form</title>
   </head> 
	
   <body>  
      <h3>Your form was successfully submitted!</h3>  
      <p><?php echo anchor('form', 'Try it again!'); ?></p>  
   </body>
	
</html>

Create a controller file Form.php and save it in application/controller/Form.php. This form will either, show errors if it is not validated properly or redirected to formsuccess.php page.

<?php
  
   class Form extends CI_Controller { 
	
      public function index() { 
         /* Load form helper */ 
         $this->load->helper(array('form'));
			
         /* Load form validation library */ 
         $this->load->library('form_validation');
			
         /* Set validation rule for name field in the form */ 
         $this->form_validation->set_rules('name', 'Name', 'required'); 
			
         if ($this->form_validation->run() == FALSE) { 
         $this->load->view('myform'); 
         } 
         else { 
            $this->load->view('formsuccess'); 
         } 
      }
   }
?>

Add the following line in application/config/routes.php.

$route['validation'] = 'Form';

Let us execute this example by visiting the following URL in the browser. This URL may be different based on your site.

http://yoursite.com/index.php/validation

It will produce the following screen −

We have added a validation in the controller − Name is required field before submitting the form. So, if you click the submit button without entering anything in the name field, then you will be asked to enter the name before submitting as shown in the screen below.

After entering the name successfully, you will be redirected to the screen as shown below.

In the above example, we have used the required rule setting. There are many rules available in the CodeIgniter, which are described below.

Validation Rule Reference

The following is a list of all the native rules that are available to use −

Given below are the most commonly used list of native rules available to use.

Rule	Parameter	Description	Example
required	No	Returns FALSE if the form element is empty.
matches	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element does not match the one in the parameter.	matches[form_item]
regex_match	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element does not match the regular expression.	regex_match[/regex/]
differs	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element does not differ from the one in the parameter.	differs[form_item]
is_unique	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element is not unique to the table and field name in the parameter. Note − This rule requires Query Builder to be enabled in order to work.	is_unique[table.field]
min_length	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element is shorter than the parameter value.	min_length[3]
max_length	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element is longer than the parameter value.	max_length[12]
exact_length	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element is not exactly the parameter value.	exact_length[8]
greater_than	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element is less than or equal to the parameter value or not numeric.	greater_than[8]
greater_than_equal_to	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element is less than the parameter value, or not numeric.	greater_than_equal_to[8]
less_than	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element is greater than or equal to the parameter value or not numeric.	less_than[8]
less_than_equal_to	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element is greater than the parameter value, or not numeric.	less_than_equal_to[8]
in_list	Yes	Returns FALSE if the form element is not within a predetermined list.	in_list[red,blue,green]
alpha	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alphabetical characters.
alpha_numeric	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alphanumeric characters.
alpha_numeric_spaces	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alphanumeric characters or spaces. Should be used after trim to avoid spaces at the beginning or end
alpha_dash	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than alphanumeric characters, underscores or dashes.
numeric	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than numeric characters.
integer	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than an integer.
decimal	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than a decimal number.
is_natural	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than a natural number − 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.
is_natural_no_zero	No	Returns FALSE if the form element contains anything other than a natural number, but not zero − 1, 2, 3, etc.
valid_url	No	Returns FALSE if the form element does not contain a valid URL.
valid_email	No	Returns FALSE if the form element does not contain a valid email address.
valid_emails	No	Returns FALSE if any value provided in a comma-separated list is not a valid email.
valid_ip	No	Returns FALSE if the supplied IP is not valid. Accepts an optional parameter of ‘ipv4’ or ‘ipv6’ to specify an IP format.
valid_base64	No	Returns FALSE if the supplied string contains anything other than valid Base64 characters.

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