find if a rule group exists (when set as $config in form_validation.php)

[eluser]davidbehler[/eluser]
There is no such method, no.
Till now I've never seen a person who needs such a feature.

You might add the form_validation.php to the config autoload array, but that could cause some problems. E.g. if you have a config item with the name of a table for which you have a validation rule aswell, the later might override the first.

But if you are sure, that there will be no such problem, then you can autoload the form_validation config file and access the validation rule like you proposed in your first post:

Code:

$this->config->item($table);

There just isn't always a "CI way" to do something