Validation

OrvexORM automatically checks that the data you send matches the types you defined in your schema. This prevents storing incorrect data in your database.

How does it work?

When you define a model, you declare the types for each column:

local User = ORM.model("users", {
    identifier = "string",
    money      = "number",
    job        = "string",
})

Every time you use create, update, or upsert, OrvexORM verifies that the values match the declared types.

Example: this works

-- OK: identifier is a string, money is a number
User.create({
    identifier = "license:abc",
    money      = 500,
    job        = "police",
})

Example: this fails

-- ERROR: money should be a number, not a string
User.create({
    identifier = "license:abc",
    money      = "a lot",   -- ❌ string instead of number
    job        = "police",
})
-- Error: Field 'money': expected number, got string

Checked types

Declared type	Expected Lua type	Valid examples
"string"	string	"hello", "license:abc"
"number"	number	500, 3.14, 0
"boolean"	boolean	true, false
"json"	table	{ x = 1 }, { "a", "b" }

Nil values are accepted

If you don't provide a value for a field, OrvexORM won't validate it. This allows for optional columns:

-- OK: job is not provided, no error
User.create({
    identifier = "license:abc",
    money      = 500,
    -- job is not specified → the database will use its default value
})

When validation triggers

Validation is automatic on these methods:

Method	Validation
User.create(data)	Yes
User.upsert(data)	Yes
User.update(data, where)	Yes (on data only)
player:update(data)	Yes
User.find(where)	No (no data to validate)
User.delete(where)	No

Handling errors

Validation throws a Lua error if the types don't match. You can catch it with pcall:

local ok, err = pcall(function()
    User.create({
        identifier = 123,          -- should be a string
        money      = "a lot",      -- should be a number
    })
end)

if not ok then
    print("Validation error: " .. err)
    -- "Validation error: Field 'identifier': expected string, got number"
end

:::tip Advice In general, you don't need to catch validation errors. They're there to signal a bug in your code — if you're sending the wrong type, something is wrong with your logic. :::