scala: idiomatic and functional way to add errors to a list of errors

Question

I have the following validation method:

def validate(wine: Wine): List[Error] = {

  var errors = List[Error]()

  if (Validate.isEmptyWord(wine.name)) {
    errors ::= ValidationError("name", "Name not specified")
  } else {
    if (isDuplicate(wine, "name")) {
      errors ::= ValidationError("name", "There already exists a wine with the name '%s'".format(wine.name))
    }
  }

  if (Validate.isEmptyWord(wine.grapes)) {
    errors ::= ValidationError("grapes", "Grapes not specified")
  }

  if (Validate.isEmptyWord(wine.country)) {
    errors ::= ValidationError("country", "Country not specified")
  }

  // more stuff like this and finnally
  errors.reverse
}

You get the idea

How would you modify it to avoid the var List[Error] and make it more functional?

score 10 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:25

Scalaz provides a Validation class that makes a functional approach to this kind of problem very easy. There's a more detailed example of how to use Validation in this Stack Overflow answer, but I'll also give a sketch here to show how it might work in your situation. I'll assume the following setup:

case class Wine(name: String, grapes: String, country: String)
case class ValidationError(name: String, msg: String)

Now we can write a couple of validation methods (note that I'm using Scalaz 7):

import scalaz._, Scalaz._

def checkNonempty(v: String, name: String, msg: String) =
  if (v.nonEmpty) v.successNel else ValidationError(name, msg).failNel

def checkDuplicate(v: String, name: String, msg: String) =
  if (true) v.successNel else ValidationError(name, msg).failNel

Where of course you should add your own duplication checking to the last line. Then we can wrap it all together:

def createWine(name: String, grape: String, country: String) = (
  checkNonempty(name, "name", "Name not specified").flatMap(_ =>
    checkDuplicate(name, "name",
      "There already exists a wine with the name '%s'".format(name)
    )
  ) |@|
  checkNonempty(grape, "grape", "Grape not specified") |@|
  checkNonempty(country, "country", "Country not specified")
)(Wine.apply)

Now if we write something like this:

val result: ValidationNEL[ValidationError, Wine] = createWine(
  "Whatever Estates", "Whatever Grape", "U.S."
)

We'll get a success value:

Success(Wine(Whatever Estates,Whatever Grape,U.S.))

But if we give it invalid input:

val result: ValidationNEL[ValidationError, Wine] = createWine(
  "", "Some Grape", ""
)

We'll get a list of the accumulated errors:

Failure(
  NonEmptyList(
    ValidationError(name,Name not specified),
    ValidationError(country,Country not specified)
  )
)

You could also roll your own validation logic, of course, but using a library like Scalaz is probably worth the trouble if you're doing much of this kind of thing.

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 22 '12 at 20:47

3

Write your isX methods to return an Option[Error] instead of a Boolean, and then

List(
  Validate.isEmptyWord(wine.name, "name", "Name not specified").
  orElse( Validate.isDuplicate(wine.name, "name", "There already exists...") ),
  Validate.isEmptyWord(wine.grapes, "grapes", "Grapes not specified"),
  ...
).flatten

and you'll have your errors. Also, there's plenty of other duplication you could remove (e.g. if it's always "x", "X not specified", you can just supply "x" and have the rest filled in by isEmptyWord).

answered Sep 22 '12 at 20:47

Rex Kerr

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sure, I'm just starting to optimize the whole thing, thanks for the tip – opensas Sep 22 '12 at 22:15
If you don't need anything in the success case besides just a boolean then this is a good route to go. The scalaz route is good when you need to create an object out of the pieces in the success case. – sourcedelica Sep 24 '12 at 00:57

scala: idiomatic and functional way to add errors to a list of errors

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