Date Validation using just a regex

Ananda has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello Monks,

I am trying to achieve date validation in a single regex without any additional test conditions. The validations include:

a)Check date format
b)Check for leap
c)Check for the correct number of days in a month

I have followed various examples but have not acheived the desired result.

Thanks in advance for all the help extended.

Ananda

Comment on Date Validation using just a regex

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Re: Date Validation using just a regex by Sidhekin (Priest) on Jul 01, 2004 at 09:16 UTC
Why on earth ... ? Well, why not ... `/(?=\d{4}-\d\d-\d\d) # Date format (?=.{8}(?:0[1-9]\|[12]\d\|3[01])) # Day 01-31 (?=.{5}(?:0[1-9]\|1[0-2])) # Month 01-12 (?!.{5}(?:0[2469]\|11)-31) # Not 31 days in those months (?!.{5}02-30) # Never 30 days in Feb (?!...[13579]-02-29) # Not a leap year (?!..[13579][048]-02-29) # -"- (?!..[02468][26]-02-29) # -"- (?!.[13579]00-02-29) # -"- (?![13579][048]00-02-29) # -"- (?![02468][26]00-02-29) # -"- /x` [download] `print "Just another Perl ${\(trickster and hacker)},"` The Sidhekin proves Sidhe did it!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Date Validation using just a regex by zakzebrowski (Curate) on Jul 01, 2004 at 23:18 UTC
Consider forwarding this node off to Abigail-II for inclusion in Regexp::Common! I'm sure that he'll request that you make it more generic, but I also know that "dates" is on the "to do list" for the module... Zak ---- Zak - the office	[reply]
Re: Date Validation using just a regex by beable (Friar) on Jul 01, 2004 at 09:08 UTC
Ananda, I think you have set yourself an impossible task. For example, some countries write dates with the month first, some with the day first, and some with the year first. If a date was "01/02/03", how could you possibly work out what it means? Secondly, why try to do this in a regex, when there are modules which can do it? CPAN time modules CPAN date modules	[reply]
Re^2: Date Validation using just a regex by pbeckingham (Parson) on Jul 01, 2004 at 13:15 UTC
Difficult yes, unwise perhaps, but not impossible. If presented with `01/02/03`, with absolutely no context, then you would be correct, but that is rarely the case. All it takes is a few heuristics to be able to make sense of that date.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Date Validation using just a regex by delirium (Chaplain) on Jul 01, 2004 at 15:52 UTC
If you don't mind an expression regex... `while(<>){ chomp; $_ = 'Use YYYY-MM-DD format' unless s/^(\d{4})-(\d\d)-(\d\d)$/ $1<1 \|\| $2<1 \|\| $3<1 ? 'Year, month, and day must be greater than +0' : $2>12 ? 'Month must be less than 13' : $3>31 ? 'Day must be less than 32' : $3==30&&$2==2 ? 'February has less than 30 days' : $3==29 && $2==2 && $1%4!=0 ? 'February only has 29 days in a leap +year' : $3==31 && $2 =~ m!0[2469]\|11! ? '30 days hath September, yada yada +..' : $_ /e; print ": $_ :\n"; }` [download]	[reply] [d/l]


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