From 1d58854cf3232d3e9a6baff498d6bd2c607a3168 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nate Wilcox <nathan+dev@electriccoin.co>
Date: Mon, 8 May 2023 15:25:01 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Add an example for arbitrary type validation upon
 deserialization.

---
 _src/examples.md                              |  4 ++
 .../validate-containers-on-deserialization.md | 62 +++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 66 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 _src/validate-containers-on-deserialization.md

diff --git a/_src/examples.md b/_src/examples.md
index efa66829..31bf3f50 100644
--- a/_src/examples.md
+++ b/_src/examples.md
@@ -57,3 +57,7 @@ into a Serde error for some other format using `Error::custom`.
 **[Date in a custom format](custom-date-format.md)**: Handle a
 [`chrono`](https://github.com/chronotope/chrono) `DateTime` formatted with a
 custom string representation.
+
+**[Validate containers on
+deserialization](validate-containers-on-deserialization.md)**: Validate
+a type after deserializing the underlying encoding.
diff --git a/_src/validate-containers-on-deserialization.md b/_src/validate-containers-on-deserialization.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7f8df3a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_src/validate-containers-on-deserialization.md
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+# Validating containers on deserialization
+
+When a struct must meet certain conditions across its fields, it is
+useful to ensure deserialization enforces those conditions.
+
+We can implement this pattern by introducing an intermediate type whose
+deserialization is derived by `serde`, then use the `try_from` directive
+on the user-facing type.
+
+For example, suppose we have a struct `MyType` with two `Option` fields,
+and we want to ensure every `MyType` value has at least one `Some` field:
+
+```
+use serde::Deserialize;
+use serde_json;
+
+// The target is to not allow deserialization if option1 & option2 are none
+#[derive(Deserialize, Debug)]
+#[serde(try_from = "MyTypeShadow")]
+pub struct MyType {
+    option1: Option<usize>,
+    option2: Option<usize>,
+}
+
+// The shadow type only has to implement Deserialize
+#[derive(Deserialize)]
+struct MyTypeShadow {
+    option1: Option<usize>,
+    option2: Option<usize>,
+}
+
+pub struct MyTypeValidationError;
+
+// The error type has to implement Display
+impl std::fmt::Display for MyTypeValidationError {
+    fn fmt(&self, formatter: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
+        write!(formatter, "option1 and option2 cannot be null")
+    }
+}
+
+impl std::convert::TryFrom<MyTypeShadow> for MyType {
+    type Error = MyTypeValidationError;
+    fn try_from(shadow: MyTypeShadow) -> Result<Self, Self::Error> {
+        let MyTypeShadow { option1, option2 } = shadow;
+        if option1.is_none() && option2.is_none() {
+            return Err(MyTypeValidationError);
+        }
+        // Any other validations
+        Ok(MyType { option1, option2 })
+    }
+}
+
+fn main() {
+    // This will return an Err
+    println!("{:?}", serde_json::from_str::<MyType>(r##"{}"##));
+    // This will work
+    println!(
+        "{:?}",
+        serde_json::from_str::<MyType>(r##"{"option1": 20}"##)
+    );
+}
+```