[RESOLVED] validating date

Velausanakha

I'm using the ereg function to check the validity of a date - I realise my ereg isn't quite perfect it'll pass but

when I enter just m/d when I'm looking for m/d/y, it'll automatically enter the current year or if I enter d/y d will be read as month and enter as the 1st/m/year and m/y will do the same thing

This is my code:

if (!ereg ("([0-3]{1,2}).([0-9]{1,2}).([0-9]{4})", $_POST[BirthDate], $regs)) //works with . and / but not -
	{   echo "Please enter a correct date";
		pageRedirect('index.html');}

Could someone suggest improvements please?

bradgrafelman

if( !strtotime($_POST['BirthDate']) ) {

Used strtotime() to let PHP figure out the format.
Properly used arrays ('BirthDate' is supposed to be a string, though you did not use it correctly as such).

Velausanakha

I'm surprised to see a post so soon, I was just going to clarify I really don't understand ereg and eregi yet and google hasn't been much help nor has the manual with my two posts

but I think I may have found something in the manual now, not sure

bradgrafelman

Well, first of all, ereg is much slower than [man]preg_match[/man] (or any of the preg functions that correspond to ereg functions).

Second of all... using regular expression syntax is very tricky and, in this case, unnecessary. Using [man]strtotime/man will verify that the date is valid AND automatically use the current year if only a month/day format is specified. Why re-invent the wheel, right?