🐛 Forward by_alias and by_name to model_validate

[ATOM00blue]

Description

SQLModel overrides model_validate, but the override does not accept or forward the by_alias and by_name arguments that Pydantic's model_validate supports.

SQLModel requires pydantic>=2.11, and both by_alias and by_name have been part of model_validate since Pydantic 2.11, so they are always available. Despite that, calling them on a SQLModel fails:

from sqlmodel import SQLModel, Field

class Hero(SQLModel):
    name: str = Field(alias="heroName")

Hero.model_validate({"heroName": "Deadpond"}, by_alias=True)
# TypeError: SQLModel.model_validate() got an unexpected keyword argument 'by_alias'

Hero.model_validate({"name": "Deadpond"}, by_name=True)
# TypeError: SQLModel.model_validate() got an unexpected keyword argument 'by_name'

The plain Pydantic equivalent works, so this is a gap in SQLModel's override. It forces users with aliased fields to drop down to __pydantic_validator__ or restructure their input.

This is also reported in #1824.

Fix

Add by_alias and by_name to the model_validate override and to the internal sqlmodel_validate helper, forwarding them to validate_python. This mirrors how the other validation arguments (strict, from_attributes, context) are already handled, and keeps model_validate consistent with Pydantic.

No version gating is needed since the supported Pydantic floor (2.11) already includes both parameters.

Tests

Added parametrized tests in tests/test_aliases.py that run the same assertions against a plain Pydantic model and the equivalent SQLModel, covering by_name=True and the by_alias=True, by_name=True combination. They fail on main with the TypeError above and pass with this change.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Note

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Adds support in SQLModel for Pydantic-style input population controls when validating models, enabling callers to explicitly choose whether aliases and/or field names are accepted during model_validate.

Changes:

• Extended SQLModel.model_validate(...) to accept by_alias and by_name keyword arguments and forward them to the underlying validator.
• Extended the internal sqlmodel_validate(...) compatibility layer to pass by_alias/by_name through to __pydantic_validator__.validate_python(...).
• Added tests covering default behavior vs by_name=True, and combined by_alias=True, by_name=True.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
tests/test_aliases.py	Adds regression tests for model_validate behavior with by_name and combined by_alias/by_name.
sqlmodel/main.py	Exposes by_alias and by_name on the public SQLModel.model_validate API and forwards them.
sqlmodel/_compat.py	Threads by_alias/by_name through sqlmodel_validate into Pydantic’s validator call.

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