Correctly determine if date string is a valid date in that format

Question

I\'m receiving a date string from an API, and it is formatted as yyyy-mm-dd.

I am currently using a regex to validate the string format, which works ok,

Answer 1

Validate with checkdate function:

$date = '2019-02-30';

$date_parts = explode( '-', $date );

if(checkdate( $date_parts[1], $date_parts[2], $date_parts[0] )){
    //date is valid
}else{
    //date is invalid
}