Collections

Collections of Simple Types

You can use the RuleForEach method to apply the same rule to multiple items in a collection:

public class Person 
{
  public List<string> AddressLines { get; set; } = new List<string>();
}

public class PersonValidator : AbstractValidator<Person> 
{
  public PersonValidator() 
  {
    RuleForEach(x => x.AddressLines).NotNull();
  }
}

The above rule will run a NotNull check against each item in the AddressLines collection.

As of version 8.5, if you want to access the index of the collection element that caused the validation failure, you can use the special {CollectionIndex} placeholder:

public class PersonValidator : AbstractValidator<Person> 
{
  public PersonValidator() 
  {
    RuleForEach(x => x.AddressLines).NotNull().WithMessage("Address {CollectionIndex} is required.");
  }
}

Collections of Complex Types

You can also combine RuleForEach with SetValidator when the collection is of another complex objects. For example:

public class Customer 
{
  public List<Order> Orders { get; set; } = new List<Order>();
}

public class Order 
{
  public double Total { get; set; }
}

public class OrderValidator : AbstractValidator<Order> 
{
  public OrderValidator() 
  {
    RuleFor(x => x.Total).GreaterThan(0);
  }
}

public class CustomerValidator : AbstractValidator<Customer> 
{
  public CustomerValidator() 
  {
    RuleForEach(x => x.Orders).SetValidator(new OrderValidator());
  }
}

Alternatively, as of FluentValidation 8.5, you can also define rules for child collection elements in-line using the ChildRules method:

public class CustomerValidator : AbstractValidator<Customer> 
{
  public CustomerValidator() 
  {
    RuleForEach(x => x.Orders).ChildRules(order => 
    {
      order.RuleFor(x => x.Total).GreaterThan(0);
    });
  }
}

You can optionally include or exclude certain items in the collection from being validated by using the Where method. Note this must come directly after the call to RuleForEach:

RuleForEach(x => x.Orders)
  .Where(x => x.Cost != null)
  .SetValidator(new OrderValidator());

As of version 8.2, an alternative to using RuleForEach is to call ForEach as part of a regular RuleFor. With this approach you can combine rules that act upon the entire collection with rules which act upon individual elements within the collection. For example, imagine you have the following 2 rules:

// This rule acts on the whole collection (using RuleFor)
RuleFor(x => x.Orders)
  .Must(x => x.Count <= 10).WithMessage("No more than 10 orders are allowed");

// This rule acts on each individual element (using RuleForEach)
RuleForEach(x => x.Orders)
  .Must(order => order.Total > 0).WithMessage("Orders must have a total of more than 0")

The above 2 rules could be re-written as:

RuleFor(x => x.Orders)
  .Must(x => x.Count <= 10).WithMessage("No more than 10 orders are allowed")
  .ForEach(orderRule => 
  {
    orderRule.Must(order => order.Total > 0).WithMessage("Orders must have a total of more than 0")
  });

We recommend using 2 separate rules as this is clearer and easier to read, but the option of combining them is available with the ForEach method.