MM/DD/YYYY using explode /?

[ps2gamer]

Is it a good idea to use the explode to check and see if the format is correct?

$date = "12/12/2004";
$check = explode("//", "$date");

// then check for 1 to 12 in $check[0];
// check for 1 to 12 in $check[1];
// Check for 1900 to 2004

if it works then its correct form otherwise it gives error

is this the best way to do this?

[sidney]

take a look at checkdate()

http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.checkdate.php

[ps2gamer]

so im guessing that after i explode $date then i use

if (var_dump(checkdate($check[0], $check[1], $check[2]))) {

echo "good";

} else {

echo "bad";
}

[sidney]

yep but no var dump thats just to show what output is in example

if (checkdate($check[0], $check[1], $check[2])){

echo "good";

} else {

echo "bad";
}

[ps2gamer]

Originally posted by sidney
yep but no var dump thats just to show what output is in example

if (checkdate($check[0], $check[1], $check[2])){

echo "good";

} else {

echo "bad";
}

One last question, i think:

Is this the proper way for the explode? I dont know if there should be two //'s or just one.

And another one is, the checkdate looks for years starting with 1, so Im thinking i have to do a check to see if $check[2] is between 1904 and 2004, something like this:

if (checkdate($check[0], $check[1], $check[2])) { 

$yearnow = date("Y");
$xx = $yearnow - 100;
while ($xx != $yearnow) {
    if ($check[2] == $xx) {
    echo "good";
    exit;
    } else {
     echo "bad";
     exit;
     }
}
} else { 

echo "bad";
exit;

}

Do you think thats an approraite way to do that?

[sidney]

 $date="12/24/2005";
$check=explode("/",$date);
if (checkdate($check[0], $check[1], $check[2]) && $check[2]<2005 && $check[2]>1903) {  

    echo "good"; 
    exit; 
    } else { 
     echo "bad"; 
     exit; 
     }  

[ps2gamer]

the above code workes excellent, however if the $date ="" then it gives error:

Warning: checkdate() expects parameter 1 to be long, string given in /home/wwwnggc/public_html/bday.php on line 15
bad

[sidney]

try this

 $date="";
if(empty($date))
	$date="0/0/0";
$check=explode("/",$date);
if (checkdate($check[0], $check[1], $check[2]) && $check[2]<2005 && $check[2]>1903) {  

    echo "good"; 
    exit; 
    } else { 
     echo "bad"; 
     exit; 
     }  

[Weedpacket]

That wouldn't be sufficient either. Not knowing where $date is getting its value from, it could be $date='foobar!@%%"; and that would (a) not be empty, and (b) lead to checkdate() barfing.

$date = '12/02/2004';
$date_parts = sscanf($date, '%2d/%2d/%4d');
if(empty($date_parts) || empty($date_parts[2]))
{ // badly formatted 'date'
}
elseif(checkdate($check[0],$check[1],$check[2]) ...etc)
{ echo 'good';
}
else
{ echo 'bad';
}

[laserlight]

What about something like:

function checkMyDate($date) {
	return (strlen($date) == 10)
		&& checkdate(
			substr($date, 0, 2),
			substr($date, 3, 2),
			substr($date, 6, 4)
			);
}

[laserlight]

hmm... I just remembered that strlen() doesnt parse the date as needed, so that alone wouldnt be safe.

function checkMyDate($date) {
	if (strlen($date) == 10) {
		$mm = substr($date, 0, 2);
		$dd = substr($date, 3, 2);
		$yyyy = substr($date, 6, 4);
		if (is_numeric($mm) && is_numeric($dd) && is_numeric($yyyy)) {
			return checkdate($mm, $dd, $yyyy);
		} else {
			return false;
		}
	} else {
		return false;
	}
}

Doesnt look so compact anymore though.