[RESOLVED] Regex date problem

[j_70]

I am just learning regular expressions.

<?php                                                                      

$ddate = '01/01/1999';
 if (preg_match("(0[1-9]|1[012])[- /.](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])[- /.](19|20)\d\d", $ddate)) {
 print 'true';
 }
 else {
    print 'false';
 }

?>

This returns false when I thought it should be true. Have I missed something?

[NogDog]

You don't have any regex delimiters, so you should be getting an error message something like the following, if error_reporting is turned on:

Warning: preg_match() [function.preg-match]: Unknown modifier '[' in C:\wamp\www\test\test.php on line 4

While the "traditional" delimiter is the slash, since you are using them as part of your regex, it's simpler to use something else, such as the "#" character:

if (preg_match("#(0[1-9]|1[012])[- /.](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])[- /.](19|20)\d\d#", $ddate)) {