Question

If I am using the javax.validation.Validator to validate an object annotated with constraints, will it always evaluate the field level constraints before the object?

For example if I have:

@DummyClassValidation
public static class DummyClassToValidate {

    private Integer myNum;

    @Min(value = 50)
    @Max(value = 100)
    public Integer getMyNum() {
        return myNum;
    }

    public void setMyNum(Integer myNum) {
        this.myNum = myNum;
    }
}

And I validate it, is it guaranteed that the @DummyClassValidation will be evaluated only after @Min and @Max? I know I can do so with Groupings but I rather not if I don’t have to (i.e. Field validations are implicitly grouped to validate before object validations).

Answer 1

Per the specification, section 3.5:

For a given group to validate, the validation routine applied on a
given bean instance is expected to execute the following constraint
validations in no particular order:

• for all reachable fields,
  execute all field level validations (including the ones expressed on
  superclasses) matching the targeted group unless the given validation
  constraint has already been processed during this validation routine
  for a given navigation path (see Section 3.5.1) as part of a previous
  group match.

• for all reachable getters, execute all getter level
  validations (including the ones expressed on interfaces and
  superclasses) matching the targeted group unless the given validation
  constraint has already been processed during this validation routine
  for a given navigation path (see Section 3.5.1) as part of a previous
  group match.

• execute all class level validations (including the ones
  expressed on interfaces and superclasses) matching the targeted group
  unless the given validation constraint has already been processed
  during this validation routine for a given navigation path (see
  Section 3.5.1) as part of a previous group match.

• for all reachable
  and cascadable associations, execute all cascading validations (see
  Section 3.5.1) including the ones expressed on interfaces and
  superclasses (see Section 3.4.5)

In short, you can’t rely on that unless you want to find an implementation that guarantees it and stick with that.