Is this a good use for anonymous functions?

[NotionCommotion]

I've always had an issue needing to write and maintain script to validate both client side and sever side so a while back I wrote a validation class whose primary purpose was:

• Accept in its constructor a JSON string which is mostly identical to the jQuery validation option except it also included a "sanitize" property.  For instance: {"rules": {"account": {"minlength": 6}}, "messages": {"account": {"minlength": "Six numbers are required"}, "sanitize":{"account":int}}.
• Provide the correct jQuery validation option so a form can be validated client side.
• Sanitize the form data server side.
• Validate the form data server side.

I recently looked at the code and it is a train wreck.  I used a single class and had a bunch of protected functions where some would validate per a given rule and return the message upon error and others would sanitize.  For non-typical rules required by the specific application, I would extend the class and add them.  Some of these added rules required other resources such as an entities primary key, a PDO connection, etc.

While inheritance worked fine to add simple rules, it did not do so for the rules which needed other resources.  Also, even though I used "final" on my base class methods, I never liked this single class of many methods as I couldn't use the same name for a given rule and sanitize method (i.e. would rather use digit and digit instead of digit and int).

I am thinking of changing it to something like the following.  While this is definitely better, I question whether I should be using traditional classes to define my standard and custom rules.  Any recommendations?  Thanks

class Validator
{
    protected $options,
    $rules=[
        "digit"=>function($value, $prop, $name){
            return /*validate and return error string or null*/;
        },
        "minlength"=>"ect, etc"    
    ];

    public function __construct(string $json, \Closure ...$customRules=[]) {
        $this->options=json_decode($json);
        $this->rules=array_merge($this->rules, $customRules);
    }
}

class Application
{
    public function someMethod() {
        $pdo=$this->pdo;
        $applicationCustomRules=[
            'someCustomRule'=>function($value, $prop, $name) use ($pdo) {
                return /*validate and return error string or null*/;
            }
        ];
        $validator=new Validator($json, ...$applicationCustomRules);

        //Which can be used such as:
        $jQueryOptions=$validator->getJQueryOptions();
        $validator->validate($data);
        $validator->validateProperty('account', $account);
    }
}

 

[requinix]

I might use regular methods, like

class Application
{

	public function someMethod() {
		$applicationCustomRules = [
			'someCustomRule' => [$this, 'customRuleValidation']
		];
		// ...
	}

	public function customRuleValidation($value, $prop, $name) {
		// ...
	}

}

Same for that one in Validator.

[NotionCommotion]

23 hours ago, requinix said:

I might use regular methods, like...

Same for that one in Validator.

Might or would?  May I ask why?

[requinix]

Might. Because I don't know. This is the sort of thing I would spend days thinking about before implementing.