# Form Validation




Improve overall data quality by validating user input for accuracy and completeness.

This page shows how to validate user input in the UI and display useful validation messages
using both reactive and template-driven forms. It assumes some basic knowledge of the two 
forms modules.

<div class="alert is-helpful">

If you're new to forms, start by reviewing the [Forms](guide/forms) and 
[Reactive Forms](guide/reactive-forms) guides.

</div>


## Template-driven validation

To add validation to a template-driven form, you add the same validation attributes as you 
would with [native HTML form validation](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/HTML/HTML5/Constraint_validation). 
Angular uses directives to match these attributes with validator functions in the framework.

Every time the value of a form control changes, Angular runs validation and generates 
either a list of validation errors, which results in an INVALID status, or null, which results in a VALID status.

You can then inspect the control's state by exporting `ngModel` to a local template variable.
The following example exports `NgModel` into a variable called `name`:

<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/template/hero-form-template.component.html" region="name-with-error-msg" title="template/hero-form-template.component.html (name)" linenums="false">

</code-example>


Note the following:

* The `<input>` element carries the HTML validation attributes: `required` and `minlength`. It 
also carries a custom validator directive, `forbiddenName`. For more 
information, see [Custom validators](guide/form-validation#custom-validators) section.

* `#name="ngModel"` exports `NgModel` into a local variable called `name`. `NgModel` mirrors many of the properties of its underlying 
`FormControl` instance, so you can use this in the template to check for control states such as `valid` and `dirty`. For a full list of control properties, see the [AbstractControl](api/forms/AbstractControl) 
API reference.

* The `*ngIf` on the `<div>` element reveals a set of nested message `divs`
but only if the `name` is invalid and the control is either `dirty` or `touched`.

* Each nested `<div>` can present a custom message for one of the possible validation errors.
There are messages for `required`, `minlength`, and `forbiddenName`.
 

<div class="alert is-helpful">



#### Why check _dirty_ and _touched_?

You may not want your application to display errors before the user has a chance to edit the form.
The checks for `dirty` and `touched` prevent errors from showing until the user 
does one of two things: changes the value, 
turning the control dirty; or blurs the form control element, setting the control to touched.

</div>

## Reactive form validation

In a reactive form, the source of truth is the component class. Instead of adding validators through attributes in the template, you add validator functions directly to the form control model in the component class. Angular then calls these functions whenever the value of the control changes.

### Validator functions

There are two types of validator functions: sync validators and async validators.  

* **Sync validators**: functions that take a control instance and immediately return either a set of validation errors or `null`. You can pass these in as the second argument when you instantiate a `FormControl`.

* **Async validators**: functions that take a control instance and return a Promise 
or Observable that later emits a set of validation errors or `null`. You can 
pass these in as the third argument when you instantiate a `FormControl`. 

Note: for performance reasons, Angular only runs async validators if all sync validators pass. Each must complete before errors are set.

### Built-in validators

You can choose to [write your own validator functions](guide/form-validation#custom-validators), or you can use some of 
Angular's built-in validators. 

The same built-in validators that are available as attributes in template-driven forms, such as `required` and `minlength`, are all available to use as functions from the `Validators` class. For a full list of built-in validators, see the [Validators](api/forms/Validators) API reference.

To update the hero form to be a reactive form, you can use some of the same 
built-in validators&mdash;this time, in function form. See below:

{@a reactive-component-class}

<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/reactive/hero-form-reactive.component.1.ts" region="form-group" title="reactive/hero-form-reactive.component.ts (validator functions)" linenums="false">
</code-example>

Note that:

* The name control sets up two built-in validators&mdash;`Validators.required` and `Validators.minLength(4)`&mdash;and one custom validator, `forbiddenNameValidator`. For more details see the [Custom validators](guide/form-validation#custom-validators) section in this guide.
* As these validators are all sync validators, you pass them in as the second argument. 
* Support multiple validators by passing the functions in as an array.
* This example adds a few getter methods. In a reactive form, you can always access any form control through the `get` method on its parent group, but sometimes it's useful to define getters as shorthands 
for the template.


If you look at the template for the name input again, it is fairly similar to the template-driven example. 

<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/reactive/hero-form-reactive.component.html" region="name-with-error-msg" title="reactive/hero-form-reactive.component.html (name with error msg)" linenums="false">
</code-example>

Key takeaways:
 
 * The form no longer exports any directives, and instead uses the `name` getter defined in 
 the component class.
 * The `required` attribute is still present. While it's not necessary for validation purposes, 
 you may want to keep it in your template for CSS styling or accessibility reasons.


## Custom validators

Since the built-in validators won't always match the exact use case of your application, sometimes you'll want to create a custom validator. 

Consider the `forbiddenNameValidator` function from previous
[examples](guide/form-validation#reactive-component-class) in 
this guide. Here's what the definition of that function looks like:

<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/shared/forbidden-name.directive.ts" region="custom-validator" title="shared/forbidden-name.directive.ts (forbiddenNameValidator)" linenums="false">
</code-example>

The function is actually a factory that takes a regular expression to detect a _specific_ forbidden name and returns a validator function.

In this sample, the forbidden name is "bob", so the validator will reject any hero name containing "bob".
Elsewhere it could reject "alice" or any name that the configuring regular expression matches.

The `forbiddenNameValidator` factory returns the configured validator function.
That function takes an Angular control object and returns _either_
null if the control value is valid _or_ a validation error object.
The validation error object typically has a property whose name is the validation key, `'forbiddenName'`,
and whose value is an arbitrary dictionary of values that you could insert into an error message, `{name}`.

Custom async validators are similar to sync validators, but they must instead return a Promise or Observable
that later emits null or a validation error object. In the case of an Observable, the Observable must complete,
at which point the form uses the last value emitted for validation.

### Adding to reactive forms

In reactive forms, custom validators are fairly simple to add. All you have to do is pass the function directly 
to the `FormControl`.

<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/reactive/hero-form-reactive.component.1.ts" region="custom-validator" title="reactive/hero-form-reactive.component.ts (validator functions)" linenums="false">
</code-example>

### Adding to template-driven forms

In template-driven forms, you don't have direct access to the `FormControl` instance, so you can't pass the 
validator in like you can for reactive forms. Instead, you need to add a directive to the template.

The corresponding `ForbiddenValidatorDirective` serves as a wrapper around the `forbiddenNameValidator`.

Angular recognizes the directive's role in the validation process because the directive registers itself
with the `NG_VALIDATORS` provider, a provider with an extensible collection of validators.

<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/shared/forbidden-name.directive.ts" region="directive-providers" title="shared/forbidden-name.directive.ts (providers)" linenums="false">
</code-example>

The directive class then implements the `Validator` interface, so that it can easily integrate 
with Angular forms. Here is the rest of the directive to help you get an idea of how it all 
comes together:

<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/shared/forbidden-name.directive.ts" region="directive" title="shared/forbidden-name.directive.ts (directive)">
</code-example>

Once the `ForbiddenValidatorDirective` is ready, you can simply add its selector, `appForbiddenName`, to any input element to activate it. For example:

<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/template/hero-form-template.component.html" region="name-input" title="template/hero-form-template.component.html (forbidden-name-input)" linenums="false">

</code-example>


<div class="alert is-helpful">

You may have noticed that the custom validation directive is instantiated with `useExisting`
rather than `useClass`. The registered validator must be _this instance_ of
the `ForbiddenValidatorDirective`&mdash;the instance in the form with
its `forbiddenName` property bound to “bob". If you were to replace
`useExisting` with `useClass`, then you’d be registering a new class instance, one that
doesn’t have a `forbiddenName`.

</div>

## Control status CSS classes

Like in AngularJS, Angular automatically mirrors many control properties onto the form control element as CSS classes. You can use these classes to style form control elements according to the state of the form. The following classes are currently supported:

* `.ng-valid`
* `.ng-invalid`
* `.ng-pending`
* `.ng-pristine`
* `.ng-dirty`
* `.ng-untouched`
* `.ng-touched`

The hero form uses the `.ng-valid` and `.ng-invalid` classes to 
set the color of each form control's border.

<code-example path="form-validation/src/assets/forms.css" title="forms.css (status classes)">

</code-example>

## Cross field validation 
This section shows how to perform cross field validation. It assumes some basic knowledge of creating custom validators.

<div class="alert is-helpful">

If you haven't created custom validators before, start by reviewing the [custom validators section](guide/form-validation#custom-validators).

</div>

In the following section, we will make sure that our heroes do not reveal their true identities by filling out the Hero Form. We will do that by validating that the hero names and alter egos do not match. 

### Adding to reactive forms

The form has the following structure:

```javascript
const heroForm = new FormGroup({
  'name': new FormControl(),
  'alterEgo': new FormControl(),
  'power': new FormControl()
});
```

Notice that the name and alterEgo are sibling controls. To evaluate both controls in a single custom validator, we should perform the validation in a common ancestor control: the `FormGroup`. That way, we can query the `FormGroup` for the child controls which will allow us to compare their values.

To add a validator to the `FormGroup`, pass the new validator in as the second argument on creation.

```javascript
const heroForm = new FormGroup({
  'name': new FormControl(),
  'alterEgo': new FormControl(),
  'power': new FormControl()
}, { validators: identityRevealedValidator });
```

The validator code is as follows:

<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/shared/identity-revealed.directive.ts" region="cross-validation-validator" title="shared/identity-revealed.directive.ts" linenums="false">
</code-example>

The identity validator implements the `ValidatorFn` interface. It takes an Angular control object as an argument and returns either null if the form is valid, or `ValidationErrors` otherwise.

First we retrieve the child controls by calling the `FormGroup`'s [get](api/forms/AbstractControl#get) method. Then we simply compare the values of the `name` and `alterEgo` controls. 

If the values do not match, the hero's identity remains secret, and we can safely return null. Otherwise, the hero's identity is revealed and we must mark the form as invalid by returning an error object.

Next, to provide better user experience, we show an appropriate error message when the form is invalid.
<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/reactive/hero-form-reactive.component.html" region="cross-validation-error-message" title="reactive/hero-form-template.component.html" linenums="false">
</code-example>

Note that we check if:
- the `FormGroup` has the cross validation error returned by the `identityRevealed` validator, 
- the user is yet to [interact](guide/form-validation#why-check-dirty-and-touched) with the form.

### Adding to template driven forms
First we must create a directive that will wrap the validator function. We provide it as the validator using the `NG_VALIDATORS` token. If you are not sure why, or you do not fully understand the syntax, revisit the previous [section](guide/form-validation#adding-to-template-driven-forms).

<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/shared/identity-revealed.directive.ts" region="cross-validation-directive" title="shared/identity-revealed.directive.ts" linenums="false">
</code-example>

Next, we have to add the directive to the html template. Since the validator must be registered at the highest level in the form, we put the directive on the `form` tag.
<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/template/hero-form-template.component.html" region="cross-validation-register-validator" title="template/hero-form-template.component.html" linenums="false">
</code-example>

To provide better user experience, we show an appropriate error message when the form is invalid.
<code-example path="form-validation/src/app/template/hero-form-template.component.html" region="cross-validation-error-message" title="template/hero-form-template.component.html" linenums="false">
</code-example>

Note that we check if:
- the form has the cross validation error returned by the `identityRevealed` validator, 
- the user is yet to [interact](guide/form-validation#why-check-dirty-and-touched) with the form.

This completes the cross validation example. We managed to:
- validate the form based on the values of two sibling controls, 
- show a descriptive error message after the user interacted with the form and the validation failed.

**You can run the <live-example></live-example> to see the complete reactive and template-driven example code.**
