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When we create a form in any type of application like it will be an web, mobile etc. We need to validate form input fields. We can’t trust on the values entered by end users. Because sometimes we will receive valid values but 80-90% times we receive invalid too.
Inside this article we will see How can we validate mobile number in CodeIgniter 4 ? Inside this we will cover validations like required, mobile number format upto 10 characters and already exists in database.
To learn about Email validation in CodeIgniter 4, click here to go.
Additionally, while learning validation here also we will see step by step how to create custom rule in codeigniter 4. For above validations what we have discussed above we will do by creating our own validation classes.
Note*: For this article, CodeIgniter v4.1 setup has been installed. May be when you are seeing, version will be updated. CodeIgniter 4.x still is in development mode.

Let’s get started.
Download & Install CodeIgniter 4 Setup
We need to download & install CodeIgniter 4 application setup to system. To set application we have multiple options to proceed. Here are the following ways to download and install CodeIgniter 4 –
- Manual Download
- Composer Installation
- Clone Github repository of CodeIgniter 4
Complete introduction of CodeIgniter 4 basics – Click here to go. After going through this article you can easily download & install setup.
Here is the command to install via composer –
$ composer create-project codeigniter4/appstarter codeigniter-4
Assuming you have successfully installed application into your local system.
Now, let’s configure database and application connectivity.
Settings Environment Variables
When we install CodeIgniter 4, we have env file at root. To use the environment variables means using variables at global scope we need to do env to .env
Open project in terminal
$ cp env .env
Above command will create a copy of env file to .env file. Now we are ready to use environment variables.
CodeIgniter starts up in production mode by default. Let’s do it in development mode. So that while working if we get any error then error will show up.
# CI_ENVIRONMENT = production // Do it to CI_ENVIRONMENT = development
Now application is in development mode.
Create Database & Table in Application
We need to create a database. For database we will use MySQL. We have 2 options available to create database. Either we can use PhpMyAdmin Manual interface Or we can use command to create.
CREATE DATABASE codeigniter4_app;
Next, we need a table. That table will be responsible to store data. Let’s create table with some columns.
CREATE TABLE tbl_students ( id int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, name varchar(120) DEFAULT NULL, email varchar(120) DEFAULT NULL, mobile varchar(45) DEFAULT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (id) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
Successfully, we have created a database and a table. Let’s connect with the application.
Database Connectivity to Application
Open .env file from project root. Search for DATABASE. You should see the connection environment variables.
Let’s set the value for those to connect with database.
#-------------------------------------------------------------------- # DATABASE #-------------------------------------------------------------------- database.default.hostname = localhost database.default.database = codeigniter4_app database.default.username = root database.default.password = root database.default.DBDriver = MySQLi
Now, database successfully connected with application.
Create Route
To configure application routes, we need to open up the file Routes.php from /app/Config. This is the main routes config file where we will do all routes of application.
//.. Other routes $routes->match(["get", "post"], "add-student", "Student::addStudent");
To remove /public/index.php from URL, you can find it’s complete resource here at this link.
Let’s create Model.
Set Application Model
Model is the face of application with the database. We need a Student Model which will do some basic model configuration.
Models are created at /app/Models. We are going to create StudentModel.php at this location.
$ php spark make:model Student --suffix
It will create StudentModel.php file at /app/Models folder.
Open StudentModel.php and write this following code into it.
<?php namespace App\Models; use CodeIgniter\Model; class StudentModel extends Model { protected $DBGroup = 'default'; protected $table = 'tbl_students'; protected $primaryKey = 'id'; protected $useAutoIncrement = true; protected $insertID = 0; protected $returnType = 'array'; protected $useSoftDelete = false; protected $protectFields = true; protected $allowedFields = [ "name", "email", "mobile" ]; // Dates protected $useTimestamps = false; protected $dateFormat = 'datetime'; protected $createdField = 'created_at'; protected $updatedField = 'updated_at'; protected $deletedField = 'deleted_at'; // Validation protected $validationRules = []; protected $validationMessages = []; protected $skipValidation = false; protected $cleanValidationRules = true; // Callbacks protected $allowCallbacks = true; protected $beforeInsert = []; protected $afterInsert = []; protected $beforeUpdate = []; protected $afterUpdate = []; protected $beforeFind = []; protected $afterFind = []; protected $beforeDelete = []; protected $afterDelete = []; }
Model is pointing tbl_students table. We have specified all the table columns into $allowedFields. If suppose we don’t specify then it restrict that missing field from insertion.
View File – Create User Form
As, we have taken fields as name, email, mobile. So with respective with these fields we need to set the user layout. Views templates will be created inside /app/Views/add-student.php
Inside this view file, at top header we have used session() service to collect session temporary data to show flash message. Flash message we will send from controller in keys of success and error.
<?php // To print success flash message if(session()->get("success")){ ?> <h3><?= session()->get("success") ?></h3> <?php } // To print error flash message if(session()->get("error")){ ?> <h3><?= session()->get("error") ?></h3> <?php } // To print error messages if(isset($validation)){ print_r($validation->listErrors() ); } ?> <form action="<?= base_url('add-student') ?>" method="post"> <p> Name: <input type="text" name="name" placeholder="Enter name"/> </p> <p> Email: <input type="email" name="email" placeholder="Enter email"/> </p> <p> Mobile: <input type="text" name="mobile" placeholder="Enter mobile"/> </p> <p> <button type="submit">Submit</button> </p> </form>
- if(session()->get(“success”)){} – Checking for success key of temporary stored message.
- session()->get(“success”) – Print session flash – success key message
- if(session()->get(“error”)){} – Checking for success key of temporary stored message.
- session()->get(“error”) – Print session flash – error key message
- site_url(‘add-student’) – Site URL with add-student route
- if(isset($validation)){} – Checking validation variable if it contains any error
- print_r($validation->listErrors()); – Printing all error messages
Register Custom Rule in Application
When we do controller’s code, we will use a custom rule like mobileValidation, alreadyExists.
To store custom validation rules file, create a folder Validation in /app directory.
Let’s create a file with the name of MobileRules.php in /app/Validation folder.
Source code of /app/Validation/MobileRules.php
<?php namespace App\Validation; use App\Models\StudentModel; class MobileRules{ // Rule is to validate mobile number digits public function mobileValidation(string $str, string $fields, array $data){ /*Checking: Number must start from 5-9{Rest Numbers}*/ if(preg_match( '/^[5-9]{1}[0-9]+/', $data['mobile'])){ /*Checking: Mobile number must be of 10 digits*/ $bool = preg_match('/^[0-9]{10}+$/', $data['mobile']); return $bool == 0 ? false : true; }else{ return false; } } // here we have created a custom rule method of already existence check of mobile number public function alreadyExists(string $str, string $fields, array $data){ $model = new StudentModel(); $data = $model->where('mobile', $data['mobile']) ->first(); if(!$data) return false; // mobile number already there return true; // mobile number not found } }
Next, we need to need to register this custom rule to application for use.
Open up the file /app/Config/Validation.php
# Add to Header use App\Validation\MobileRules; # Add here public $ruleSets = [ //.. other rules MobileRules::class, ];
Application Controller Settings
Controller is the functional file. Firstly let’s load a helper at Parent Controller i.e BaseController.php. This file is in /app/Controllers folder.
Search helpers in BaseController and load “url” into helpers.
protected $helpers = [‘url’];
After loading this url helper, we will able to use site_url() and base_url() in Controllers & Views else we should have some error.
We will create application controller at /app/Controllers. Let’s create Student.php inside the given folder. Open project into terminal and type this spark command.
$ php spark make:controller Student
Write the following code into /app/Controllers/Student.php
<?php namespace App\Controllers; use App\Models\StudentModel; class Student extends BaseController { public function addStudent(){ if($this->request->getMethod() == "post"){ $rules = [ "name" => "required", "email" => "required", "mobile" => "required|mobileValidation[mobile]|alreadyExists[mobile]", //"mobile" => "required|mobileValidation[mobile]|is_unique[tbl_students.mobile]", ]; $messages = [ "name" => [ "required" => "Mobile number required" ], "email" => [ "required" => "Email required" ], "mobile" => [ "required" => "Mobile Number is required", "mobileValidation" => "Invalid Mobile Number", "alreadyExists" => "Mobile number already exists" ], ]; if (!$this->validate($rules, $messages)) { return view("add-student", [ "validation" => $this->validator, ]); }else{ $dataObject = new StudentModel(); $data = [ "name" => $this->request->getVar("name"), "email" => $this->request->getVar("email"), "mobile" => $this->request->getVar("mobile"), ]; $dataObject->insert($data); $session = session(); $session->setFlashdata("success", "Data saved successfully"); return redirect()->to(site_url("add-student")); } } return view("add-student"); } }
- if ($this->request->getMethod() == “post”) Checking request type
- $rules = []; Define form validation rules
- required|mobileValidation[mobile]|alreadyExists[mobile] Custom validation rules defined above. required Required rule for mobile number, mobileValidation It is of valid pattern for mobile number, alreadyExists this is for custom rule for checking already exists or not. Also we can do this by a validation rule as is_unique[tbl_students.mobile]
- $messages = [] Define custom messages
- if (!$this->validate($rules, $messages)) {} Validating add student form
- $dataObject = new StudentModel(); Creating student model instance
- $session = session(); Creating a session instance for flashdata.
We hope this article helped you to fix Validate Mobile Number in CodeIgniter 4 in a very detailed way.
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