AL Field Validations: TestField vs Validate

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Posted on by ERPlatanos

Hi all,

I'm working through different filed methods and came across the documentation highlighting two different validation options for fields in AL, TestField, and Validate

What are the differences between using these two, and which scenarios work best for each case?

It seems both can see if a record exists or doesn't have a value.

You can also check to see if a record meets criteria with seemingly the same syntax?

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Teddy Herryanto (Th... 14,209 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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RE: AL Field Validations: TestField vs Validate

TestField and Validate are two different things.

TestField is to test whether the value of the field is what you want. On your example: Testing if the Customer Salesperson Code is ZX. If it is not ZX, it will throw an error.

Validation runs any validation logic on the OnValidate trigger of the field. If there is nothing on OnValidate trigger, there will be no error. In general, you should always runs the Validation.

You can have testfield inside OnValidate trigger. Example:

Customer.Validate("Phone No.", '1234567891234');

field(9; "Phone No."; Text[30])

{

trigger OnValidate()

begin

if Rec."Phone No." <> '' then

Rec.TestField("Salesperson Code",'ZX'); //meaning that you can only input Phone No if Salesperson is ZX

end;

}

TestField reference.

learn.microsoft.com/.../testfield-function--record-

Validate reference.

learn.microsoft.com/.../record-validate-method

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YUN ZHU 93,024 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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RE: AL Field Validations: TestField vs Validate

Hi, just adding some info.

In fact, there is Record.FieldError(Any [, String]) Method, you can also try.

Record.FieldError(Any [, String]) Method - Business Central | Microsoft Learn

Hope this helps as well.

Thanks.

ZHU

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RM-30091108-0 3 on at

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AL Field Validations: TestField vs Validate

@YUN ZHU, how do you display the red field error icon and red border on a field in a validation procedure? FieldError does not.

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