Solidity local validation call before sending state changing transaction

Question

I have an use-case where the user should be able to change a contract's state only when the inputs pass a validation check. However the validations are expensive to perform and can be done locally because they depend only on the function parameters. Is it is possible to perform the validation with a contract call and then, if it passes, broadcast the state-changing transaction with a send transaction?

This is the example I have in mind:

contract A {

    uint8 stateVariable = 0;

    //constant callable function for expensive verification
    function constantVerifier(uint8 param) constant {
        //expensive verification
        require(param <= 5);
        //broadcast transaction to change state of this instance
        A(this).changeState();
    }

    //state changing function
    function changeState() {
        //only this contract allowed to change state
        require(msg.sender == address(this));
        //change state
        stateVariable++;
    }
}

This particular snippet doesn't change the state. Is it possible to achieve something like this in Solidity? In general, what is the design pattern to handle expensive checks before changing the state of contracts?

Answer 1

You can split constantVerifier to avoid expensive verification. The code as follows:

contract A {

    uint8 stateVariable = 0;

    //constant callable function for expensive verification
    function constantVerifier(uint8 param) constant returns (bool){
        if (param <= 5) {
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    //state changing function
    function changeState() {
        //only this contract allowed to change state
        require(msg.sender == address(this));
        //change state
        stateVariable++;
    }

}

At first, you should call constantVerifier function to check whether the param is valid. If return true and then calling changeState, or nothing. Hope it helps~