正则表达式的解决方案

function verify_date($date){
  /* correct format = "2012-09-15 11:23:32" or "2012-09-15"*/
  if (preg_match("/^[0-9]{4}-(0[1-9]|1[0-2])-(0[1-9]|[1-2][0-9]|3[0-1])( (0[0-9]|[1-2][0-4]):(0[0-9]|[1-5][0-9]):(0[0-9]|[1-5][0-9]))?$/",$date)) {
    return true;
  } else {
    die("Wrong date format: it should be '2012-09-15 11:23:32' or '2012-09-15', date received is: ".$date);
  }
}

判断字符串是否为日期，即使字符串是非标准格式

(strtotime不接受任何自定义格式)

<?php
function validateDateTime($dateStr, $format)
{
    date_default_timezone_set('UTC');
    $date = DateTime::createFromFormat($format, $dateStr);
    return $date && ($date->format($format) === $dateStr);
}

// These return true
validateDateTime('2001-03-10 17:16:18', 'Y-m-d H:i:s');
validateDateTime('2001-03-10', 'Y-m-d');
validateDateTime('2001', 'Y');
validateDateTime('Mon', 'D');
validateDateTime('March 10, 2001, 5:16 pm', 'F j, Y, g:i a');
validateDateTime('March 10, 2001, 5:16 pm', 'F j, Y, g:i a');
validateDateTime('03.10.01', 'm.d.y');
validateDateTime('10, 3, 2001', 'j, n, Y');
validateDateTime('20010310', 'Ymd');
validateDateTime('05-16-18, 10-03-01', 'h-i-s, j-m-y');
validateDateTime('Monday 8th of August 2005 03:12:46 PM', 'l jS \of F Y h:i:s A');
validateDateTime('Wed, 25 Sep 2013 15:28:57', 'D, d M Y H:i:s');
validateDateTime('17:03:18 is the time', 'H:m:s \i\s \t\h\e \t\i\m\e');
validateDateTime('17:16:18', 'H:i:s');

// These return false
validateDateTime('2001-03-10 17:16:18', 'Y-m-D H:i:s');
validateDateTime('2001', 'm');
validateDateTime('Mon', 'D-m-y');
validateDateTime('Mon', 'D-m-y');
validateDateTime('2001-13-04', 'Y-m-d');

恐怕大多数投票的解决方案(https://stackoverflow.com/a/19271434/3283279)不能正常工作。第四个测试用例(var_dump(validateDate('2012-2-25'));// false)是错误的。日期是正确的，因为它对应的格式- m允许一个月前导零或不前导零(参见:http://php.net/manual/en/datetime.createfromformat.php)。因此，日期2012-2-25的格式是Y-m-d，测试用例必须为真而不是假。

我认为更好的解决方案是测试可能的错误，如下所示:

function validateDate($date, $format = 'Y-m-d') {
    DateTime::createFromFormat($format, $date);
    $errors = DateTime::getLastErrors();

    return $errors['warning_count'] === 0 && $errors['error_count'] === 0;
}

这个选项不仅简单，而且几乎可以接受任何格式，尽管使用非标准格式可能会有bug。

$timestamp = strtotime($date);
return $timestamp ? $date : null;

正则表达式的解决方案

function verify_date($date){
  /* correct format = "2012-09-15 11:23:32" or "2012-09-15"*/
  if (preg_match("/^[0-9]{4}-(0[1-9]|1[0-2])-(0[1-9]|[1-2][0-9]|3[0-1])( (0[0-9]|[1-2][0-4]):(0[0-9]|[1-5][0-9]):(0[0-9]|[1-5][0-9]))?$/",$date)) {
    return true;
  } else {
    die("Wrong date format: it should be '2012-09-15 11:23:32' or '2012-09-15', date received is: ".$date);
  }
}

判断是否有字符串是日期

function checkIsAValidDate($myDateString){
    return (bool)strtotime($myDateString);
}