form helper and values with set_value

[eluser]bhbutter123[/eluser]
I was looking through the documentation and did not find the answer I was looking for. If I use the form helper to create my form inputs can I skip having to use the set_value on my manually created inputs. In other words, if I use the form helper for the form_input() function, after validation errors, will those fields be populated with the data the user entered or do I still need to use set_value() somehow. If i still need to use set_value(), how would I go about doing it?

[eluser]puzzlebox[/eluser]
you need the set_value to repopulate the data. you can skip it but your data will not be repopulated..

[eluser]tim1965[/eluser]
Aslo if you want the fields to re-populate make sure you have a validation rule set for each field you want re-populated or they wont get re-populated. Even if its only prepping the data i.e. cleaning it.