Improving Spring Boot Controllers: From Messy to Elegant with @Valid and Global Exception Handling

Many developers encounter controllers that are overloaded with try‑catch statements, repetitive field checks, and even business logic, which makes the code hard to read and maintain.

Untidy Controller

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/user/test")
public class UserController {

    private static Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(UserController.class);

    @Autowired
    private UserService userService;

    @Autowired
    private AuthService authService;

    @PostMapping
    public CommonResult userRegistration(@RequestBody UserVo userVo) {
        if (StringUtils.isBlank(userVo.getUsername())) {
            return CommonResult.error("用户名不能为空");
        }
        if (StringUtils.isBlank(userVo.getPassword())) {
            return CommonResult.error("密码不能为空");
        }
        logger.info("注册用户：{}", userVo.getUsername());
        try {
            userService.registerUser(userVo.getUsername());
            return CommonResult.ok();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            logger.error("注册用户失败：{}", userVo.getUsername(), e);
            return CommonResult.error("注册失败");
        }
    }

    @PostMapping("/login")
    @PermitAll
    @ApiOperation("使用账号密码登录")
    public CommonResult
login(@RequestBody AuthLoginReqVO reqVO) {
        if (StringUtils.isBlank(reqVO.getUsername())) {
            return CommonResult.error("用户名不能为空");
        }
        if (StringUtils.isBlank(reqVO.getPassword())) {
            return CommonResult.error("密码不能为空");
        }
        try {
            return success(authService.login(reqVO));
        } catch (Exception e) {
            logger.error("注册用户失败：{}", reqVO.getUsername(), e);
            return CommonResult.error("注册失败");
        }
    }
}

Elegant Controller

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/user/test")
public class UserController1 {

    private static Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(UserController1.class);

    @Autowired
    private UserService userService;

    @Autowired
    private AuthService authService;

    @PostMapping("/userRegistration")
    public CommonResult userRegistration(@RequestBody @Valid UserVo userVo) {
        userService.registerUser(userVo.getUsername());
        return CommonResult.ok();
    }

    @PostMapping("/login")
    @PermitAll
    @ApiOperation("使用账号密码登录")
    public CommonResult
login(@RequestBody @Valid AuthLoginReqVO reqVO) {
        return success(authService.login(reqVO));
    }
}

By moving validation to annotations such as @Valid and using Bean Validation constraints, the amount of boilerplate code is roughly halved, and the controller no longer contains explicit business logic.

Example of a request object with validation annotations:

@ApiModel(value = "管理后台 - 账号密码登录 Request VO")
@Data
@NoArgsConstructor
@AllArgsConstructor
@Builder
public class AuthLoginReqVO {

    @ApiModelProperty(value = "账号", required = true, example = "user")
    @NotEmpty(message = "登录账号不能为空")
    @Length(min = 4, max = 16, message = "账号长度为 4-16 位")
    @Pattern(regexp = "^[A-Za-z0-9]+$", message = "账号格式为数字以及字母")
    private String username;

    @ApiModelProperty(value = "密码", required = true, example = "password")
    @NotEmpty(message = "密码不能为空")
    @Length(min = 4, max = 16, message = "密码长度为 4-16 位")
    private String password;

}

The @Valid annotation triggers validation of the annotated object; if any constraint fails, Spring throws a MethodArgumentNotValidException . This approach is cleaner than writing multiple if checks.

Difference between @Validated and @Valid : @Validated is a Spring‑specific variant that supports validation groups, allowing selective validation of fields.

Global Exception Handling

@ResponseBody
@RestControllerAdvice
public class ExceptionHandlerAdvice {
    protected Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(getClass());

    @ExceptionHandler(MethodArgumentNotValidException.class)
    public CommonResult
handleValidationExceptions(MethodArgumentNotValidException ex) {
        logger.error("[handleValidationExceptions]", ex);
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        ex.getBindingResult().getAllErrors().forEach(error -> {
            String fieldName = ((org.springframework.validation.FieldError) error).getField();
            String errorMessage = error.getDefaultMessage();
            sb.append(fieldName).append(":").append(errorMessage).append(";");
        });
        return CommonResult.error(sb.toString());
    }

    /**
     * Handles all other uncaught exceptions as a fallback.
     */
    @ExceptionHandler(value = Exception.class)
    public CommonResult
defaultExceptionHandler(Throwable ex) {
        logger.error("[defaultExceptionHandler]", ex);
        return CommonResult.error(INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR.getCode(), INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR.getMsg());
    }
}

With these changes, controllers become concise, validation is declarative, and errors are handled uniformly, greatly improving code readability and maintainability.

In summary, avoid placing business logic inside controllers; instead delegate to service layers, use annotation‑driven validation, and centralize exception handling to keep the controller layer clean and focused on request routing.