Built-in Rules#

All rules shipped with meritum/validation. Rules listed as stoppable halt propagation to subsequent rules for the same field when the stop condition is met.

Presence / flow#

Rule	Params	Stop condition	Description
`required`	—	on failure	Fails if absent, `null`, or empty string
`nullable`	—	if `null`	Always passes; skips subsequent rules if `null`

Type#

Rule	Params	Description
`string`	—	`is_string()`
`integer`	—	`is_int()`
`float`	—	`is_float()` — integers do not pass; use `numeric` for numeric strings
`boolean`	—	`is_bool()`
`array`	—	`is_array()`
`numeric`	—	`is_numeric()` — accepts integers, floats, and numeric strings

String#

Rule	Params	Description
`alpha`	—	Alphabetic characters only
`alphaNum`	—	Alphanumeric characters only
`email`	—	Valid email address
`url`	—	Valid URL
`uuid`	—	Valid UUID
`ip`	—	Valid IP address (v4 or v6)
`ipv4`	—	Valid IPv4 address
`ipv6`	—	Valid IPv6 address
`regex`	`pattern`	Matches a regular expression pattern
`lengthMin`	`min`	String length ≥ min (`mb_strlen`)
`lengthMax`	`max`	String length ≤ max (`mb_strlen`)
`lengthBetween`	`min, max`	String length between min and max inclusive (`mb_strlen`)

Numeric#

Rule	Params	Description
`min`	`min`	Value ≥ min (numeric)
`max`	`max`	Value ≤ max (numeric)
`between`	`min, max`	Value between min and max inclusive (numeric)

Comparison#

Rule	Params	Description
`equals`	`value`	Strict equality to `value`
`notEquals`	`value`	Strict inequality to `value`
`in`	`val, ...`	Value is in the list (strict comparison)
`notIn`	`val, ...`	Value is not in the list (strict comparison)
`sameAs`	`field`	Strict equality to another field’s value
`differentFrom`	`field`	Strict inequality from another field’s value

sameAs and differentFrom are field-referencing rules — see FieldReferencingRuleInterface .

Date#

Rule	Params	Description
`date`	—	Parseable date string (validated with `checkdate`)
`dateFormat`	`format`	Date string matching a PHP `date()` format (e.g. `Y-m-d`)

Schema examples#

// Presence
'name'  => ['required', 'string'],   // required — must be present
'bio'   => ['string'],               // optional — validates only if present
'alias' => ['nullable', 'string'],   // optional and nullable

// Type + length
'username' => ['required', 'string', 'lengthBetween' => [3, 32]],
'age'      => ['required', 'integer', 'between' => [13, 120]],
'price'    => ['required', 'numeric', 'min' => 0],

// Enum-like
'status' => ['required', 'in' => ['draft', 'published', 'archived']],

// Format
'email'    => ['required', 'email'],
'website'  => ['url'],
'slug'     => ['required', 'regex' => '/^[a-z0-9-]+$/'],
'birthday' => ['dateFormat' => 'Y-m-d'],

// Cross-field
'password_confirmation' => ['required', 'sameAs' => 'password'],
'new_password'          => ['required', 'differentFrom' => 'current_password'],