Can I use model validation/validation attributes for initializing an object in non-ASP projects?

Question

I came across this page for model validation and found validation attributes pretty amazing. But it looks very geared towards the web and I believe it only works when deserializing.

What would be the equivalent/idiomatic way to validate objects when initializing and throughout the object's lifetime? Or maybe I can use validation attributes but just couldn't find the non-ASP docs?

Answer 1

You can try using Validator.TryValidateObject with manually created ValidationContext :

var someObjectToValidate = ...;
var vc = new ValidationContext(someObjectToValidate, serviceProvider: null, items: null);
var results = new List<ValidationResult>();
bool isValid = Validator.TryValidateObject(u, vc, results, true);

But personally I prefer using FluentValidation package which can be integrated with ASP.NET Core.