Question

Strange behaviour of php DateTime class

$x = '23120-7-7';
$x = new \DateTime($x);
var_dump($x);

Gives

object(DateTime)#988 (3) {
  ["date"]=>
  string(19) "2000-07-07 23:12:00"
  ["timezone_type"]=>
  int(3)
  ["timezone"]=>
  string(3) "UTC"
}

I wanted to validate date but there is only datetime class in php. How can i check for

that my date is valid ?

Answer 1

Use date_create_from_format

$x = '23120-7-7';
$x = \DateTime::createFromFormat('Y-m-d', $x);
var_dump($x);

Output:

bool(false)

To see the error detail:

$errors = DateTime::getLastErrors();
var_dump($errors);

Output:

array(4) {
  ["warning_count"]=>
  int(1)
  ["warnings"]=>
  array(1) {
    [7]=>
    string(27) "The parsed date was invalid"
  }
  ["error_count"]=>
  int(2)
  ["errors"]=>
  array(2) {
    [4]=>
    string(40) "The separation symbol could not be found"
    [7]=>
    string(13) "Trailing data"
  }
}