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

/*********************************************************************************
Returns TRUE if the input parameter is a valid date string in "YYYY-MM-DD" format (aka "MySQL date format")
The date separator can be only the '-' character.
*********************************************************************************/
function isMysqlDate($yyyymmdd)
{
    return checkdate(substr($yyyymmdd, 5, 2), substr($yyyymmdd, 8), substr($yyyymmdd, 0, 4)) 
        && (substr($yyyymmdd, 4, 1) === '-') 
        && (substr($yyyymmdd, 7, 1) === '-');
}