Date Validator

Zend\Validator\Date allows you to validate if a given value contains a date.

Supported options

The following options are supported for Zend\Validator\Date:

• format: Sets the format which is used to write the date.
• locale: Sets the locale which will be used to validate date values.

Default date validation

The easiest way to validate a date is by using the default date format, Y-m-d.

$validator = new Zend\Validator\Date();

$validator->isValid('2000-10-10');   // returns true
$validator->isValid('10.10.2000'); // returns false

Specifying a date format

Zend\Validator\Date also supports custom date formats. When you want to validate such a date, use the format option. This option accepts any format allowed by the PHP DateTime::createFromFormat() method.

$validator = new Zend\Validator\Date(['format' => 'Y']);

$validator->isValid('2010'); // returns true
$validator->isValid('May');  // returns false

Strict mode

• Since 2.13.0

By default, Zend\Validator\Date only validates that it can convert the provided value to a valid DateTime value.

If you want to require that the date is specified in a specific format, you can provide both the date format and the strict options. In such a scenario, the value must both be covertable to a DateTime value and be in the same format as provided to the validator. (Generally, this will mean the value must be a string.)

$validator = new Zend\Validator\Date(['format' => 'Y-m-d', 'strict' => true]);

$validator->isValid('2010-10-10'); // returns true
$validator->isValid(new DateTime('2010-10-10)); // returns false; value is not a string
$validator->isValid('2010.10.10'); // returns false; format differs