How to check if a string is a valid date

Question

I have a string: \"31-02-2010\" and want to check whether or not it is a valid date. What is the best way to do it?

I need a method which which returns

Answer 1

Try regex for all dates:

/(\d{1,2}[-\/]\d{1,2}[-\/]\d{4})|(\d{4}[-\/]\d{1,2}[-\/]\d{1,2})/.match("31-02-2010")

For only your format with leading zeroes, year last and dashes:

/(\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{4})/.match("31-02-2010")

the [-/] means either - or /, the forward slash must be escaped. You can test this on http://gskinner.com/RegExr/

add the following lines, they will all be highlighted if you use the first regex, without the first and last / (they are for use in ruby code).

2004-02-01
2004/02/01
01-02-2004
1-2-2004
2004-2-1