an alternative with DateTime

[mojotoad]

#!/usr/bin/perl

use DateTime::Format::Strptime;

my $strp = DateTime::Format::Strptime->new(
  pattern => '%d-%m-%Y',
  on_error => 'croak',
);
my $dt = $strp->parse_datetime("31-02-2006");
print $dt->datetime, "\n";

results: "Invalid day of month (day = 31 - month = 02)"

You can assign any handler you want to 'on_error'

Cheers,
Matt