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Validating a Date

The function checkdate( ) returns true if a given month, day, and year form a valid Gregorian date:

checkdate function

This function isn't based on a timestamp and so can accept a larger range of dates: basically any dates in the years 1 to 32767. It automatically accounts for leap years.

checkdate syntax

boolean checkdate(integer month, integer day, integer year)

This function accepts three parameters:

1. month is between 1 and 12

2. day is within the allowed number of days for the given month

3. year is between 1 and 32767

And returns TRUE if the date given is valid; otherwise returns FALSE.

checkdate examples

// Works for a wide range of dates
$valid = checkdate(1, 1, 1066);
    //output: true
	
$valid = checkdate(1, 1, 2929);
    //output: true

	
// Correctly identify bad dates
$valid = checkdate(13, 1, 1996);
    //output: false
	
$valid = checkdate(4, 31, 2001);
    //output: false

	
// Correctly handles leap years
$valid = checkdate(2, 29, 1996);
    //output: true

$valid = checkdate(2, 29, 2001);
    //output: false

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