CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-railsruby-on-rails-4
user1175969
user1175969

Reputation: 570

Difference between validates_format_of and validates

We can validate email by doing:

validates :email, format: { with: VALID_EMAIL_REGEX }

or

validates_format_of :email, :with => /\A([^@\s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+\.)+[a-z]{2,})\Z/i, :on => :create

What is the difference between the 2 approaches. Is one approach better than the other?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 1544

Answers (1)

Bart Jedrocha
Bart Jedrocha

Reputation: 11570

There is no difference between those two forms. The first is just a convenient shortcut for being able to specify multiple validations on a single attribute. For example, let's say you wanted to ensure that an email is valid but also unique. Using the second form in your example, this would be written

validates_uniqueness_of :email
validates_format_of :email, with: VALID_EMAIL_REGEX

Or, it could be written more succinctly using validates

validates :email, uniqueness: true, format: { with: VALID_EMAIL_REGEX }

What's also nice about using validates is that you can mix default validations with your own custom validations with a single call to validates. More information here.

Upvotes: 6

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