Why Doesn't My Regex Match ISO Dates in PHP?

Why the Supplied Date Pattern Fails to Match ISO Dates

The original issue faced was that a regular expression used to validate ISO-style dates was not returning the expected "true" result for a matching date like "2012-08-24 20:30:00." This could be baffling, as the regular expression appeared to be valid when tested using an online tool.

The error lies in the absence of delimiters around the regular expression. In PHP, regular expressions should be enclosed within "/". Once the opening and closing slashes are added, the validation function should correctly match the provided date string, resulting in "true" when the format is ISO-compliant and "false" otherwise.

To avoid potential pitfalls in writing custom regular expressions, it's highly recommended to utilize the DateTime class in PHP. This class provides a comprehensive API for working with dates and times, including convenient methods for validation and formatting.

The provided function utilizing the DateTime class offers a versatile solution for validating dates in various formats. It accepts a date string and an optional format string. Examples of different date and time formats are demonstrated, providing a robust method for handling date validation tasks.

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