Help with Regular Expressions

[ladieballer2004]

I have a preg_match and it is supposed to flag if my date isn't in MM-YYYY format.  Here is my code

if 
  (!empty($_POST['StartDate'][$row]) && !preg_match('/^(0[1-9]|1[0-2]) [-] (19|20)\d{2}$/',$_POST['Startdate'][$row]))
  {echo '<b>One of your Start Date columns is not in the proper format. Make Sure it is MM-YYYY<br/>';$dataOK=FALSE;}

 

what did i do wrong? Please Help

[ILMV]

Try this:

 

preg_match('/^([0-9]{2}?)(\-)([0-9]{4}?)/',$_POST['Startdate'][$row]))

 

[nrg_alpha]

@ ladieballer,

 

Looking at your preg pattern, notice you have a space between your first alternation and your second.. so the format looks for MM - YYYY. You are also using captures.. not sure if you need them or not.. given that it is a format you are looking for, I would resort to using non capturing groups instead. Finally, that lone hyphen in the middle doesn't need to be in a character class [].. You can simply have it sitting there on its own. So that pattern could be as such:

 

/^(?:0[1-9]|1[0-2])-(?:19|20)\d{2}$/

 

@ILMV,

 

Your pattern could match 00-0000 for instance... There's no need for adding the question mark after your intervals ({2} and {4}). Besides the capturing issue, that hyphen doesn't need to be escaped.. as mentioned, it can simply sit there and it will be treated as a literal.