When to Use @Validated vs @Valid for Nested Validation in Spring

Spring Validation provides two main annotations for parameter validation: @Validated (Spring's JSR‑303 variant) and @Valid (the standard JSR‑303 annotation), which can be combined with BindingResult to obtain validation results.

1. Grouping

@Validated

supports validation groups, allowing different constraints to be applied based on the group used; @Valid does not support grouping.

2. Annotation Placement

@Validated

can be placed on a class, method, or method parameter, but it cannot be applied to a field (member property). @Valid can be placed on methods, constructors, method parameters, and also on fields, enabling field‑level validation.

3. Nested Validation

Consider the following entity classes:

public class Item {
    @NotNull(message = "id不能为空")
    @Min(value = 1, message = "id必须为正整数")
    private Long id;

    @NotNull(message = "props不能为空")
    @Size(min = 1, message = "props至少要有一个自定义属性")
    private List<Prop> props;
}

public class Prop {
    @NotNull(message = "pid不能为空")
    @Min(value = 1, message = "pid必须为正整数")
    private Long pid;

    @NotNull(message = "vid不能为空")
    @Min(value = 1, message = "vid必须为正整数")
    private Long vid;

    @NotBlank(message = "pidName不能为空")
    private String pidName;

    @NotBlank(message = "vidName不能为空")
    private String vidName;
}

When a controller receives an Item object, using only @Validated or @Valid on the method parameter validates the id and the props collection itself, but it does **not** automatically validate the fields of each Prop inside the list.

To enable nested validation, the collection field must be annotated with @Valid:

public class Item {
    @NotNull(message = "id不能为空")
    @Min(value = 1, message = "id必须为正整数")
    private Long id;

    @Valid // enable nested validation
    @NotNull(message = "props不能为空")
    @Size(min = 1, message = "props至少要有一个自定义属性")
    private List<Prop> props;
}

Controller example:

@RestController
public class ItemController {
    @RequestMapping("/item/add")
    public void addItem(@Validated Item item, BindingResult bindingResult) {
        // processing logic
    }
}

With the @Valid annotation on the props field, Spring Validation will traverse each Prop object and report violations (e.g., null or negative pid / vid) in the BindingResult.

Summary of Differences

@Validated : cannot be used on fields; does not trigger nested validation by itself; can be combined with validation groups.

@Valid : can be used on fields; enables nested validation when placed on a collection or object field; does not support groups.