date validation

verN

hi, i have a text box where the user enters the date however, iwould like to validate the user's input by checking that the user have

(1) inputted the date in the following format DD/MM/YY
(2) and words are not entered e.g dkfgsdjg
(3) the day, month, year are correct e.g don't allow 32/14/2006

$date = $_POST['dates'];

how could i do this, i'm thinking of using javascript but do not know how to go about solving this probelm. I would like a message outputted telling the user the date they entered e.g. 25/44/2007 was incorrect and they should input a date in the cprrrect format e.g. DD/MM/YYYY.

thanks

bubblenut

use a regular expression, see [man]pcre[/man]
```
#\d{2}/\d{2}/\d{2}#
```
validated by 1.
use the [man]checkdate[/man] function.

NogDog

For client-side validation, you could take a look at this page. However, remember that not all users will necessarily have JavaScript enabled, so you still need to validate the input on the server side, too.

Personally, I prefer to present 3 separate select elements (month, day, year) rather than requiring the user to type things in the right sequence, with the right delimiters, and with the right number of digits. (You still need to validate that the date is valid, but it's much less prone to user error.)