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Date + Time Validator
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Melissa Whalen
Hi,

I'm trying to get a regex that will validate a date and time. The date has
to be there, but the time can be an optional entry. I've looked through
regexlib.com, but I can't seem to find exactly what I'm looking for. I've
tried combining a couple to get what I need, but I'm not sure of all the
syntax so I wasn't able to get it to work.
Here's what I've tried (taken from regexlib.com):
^((((0[13578])|([13578])|(1[02]))[\/](([1-9])|([0-2][0-9])|(3[01])))|(((0[46
9])|([469])|(11))[\/](([1-9])|([0-2][0-9])|(30)))|((2|02)[\/](([1-9])|([0-2]
[0-9]))))[\/]\d{4}(1|01|2|02|3|03|4|04|5|05|6|06|7|07|8|08|9|09|10|11|12{1,2
}):(([0-5]{1}[0-9]{1}\s{0,1})([AM|PM|am|pm]{2,2}))\W{0}$

I'd like the format to be
MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM AM/PM
-the time is optional for the user to enter
-the date is mandatory
-I'd like to be able to accept either 5/1/2002 or 05/01/2002 as the date

So, if anyone could help me out with that, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks
--
Melissa Whalen, BBA/IS, AIT
Reply to this message...
 
    
Darren Neimke
Melissa,

I'll take a look at this later when I have some time - if somebody
doesn't solve it for you by then. But I'd just like to make a comment
on the pattern that you've defined... Take a look at it; it's a huge,
fat, hairy, unweildy beast! Do you agree? What would you do if you
stumbled across a page that another developer had written and it had
something like this placed in the middle of it:

    ([13578])|(1[02]))[\/](([1-9])|([0-2][0-9])|(3[01])))|(((0[46
=09
9])|([469])|(11))[\/](([1-9])|([0-2][0-9])|(30)))|((2|02)[\/](([1-9])|([
0-2]
=09
[0-9]))))[\/]\d{4}(1|01|2|02|3|03|4|04|5|05|6|06|7|07|8|08|9|09|10|11|12
{1,2
    }):(([0-5]{1}[0-9]{1}\s{0,1})([AM|PM|am|pm]{2,2}))\W{0}$

What I try to do in such a case is to break the pattern down into
sub-patterns ( if possible ). In your case, that might mean defining a
"Date" pattern, and a "Time" pattern:

var RE_DATE =3D "\d{2}[\/-]\d{2}[\/-]/\d{4}"
var RE_TIME =3D "\d{1,2}\:\d{1,2} [aApP]M"
var RE_DATETIME =3D RE_DATE + ' ' + RE_TIME

Just a thought :-)

Regards,

Darren

-----Original Message-----
From: Melissa Whalen [mailto:Click here to reveal e-mail address]=20
Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 6:39 AM
To: aspngregexp
Subject: [aspngregexp] Date + Time Validator

Hi,

I'm trying to get a regex that will validate a date and time. The date
has to be there, but the time can be an optional entry. I've looked
through regexlib.com, but I can't seem to find exactly what I'm looking
for. I've tried combining a couple to get what I need, but I'm not sure
of all the syntax so I wasn't able to get it to work. Here's what I've
tried (taken from regexlib.com):
^((((0[13578])|([13578])|(1[02]))[\/](([1-9])|([0-2][0-9])|(3[01])))|(((
0[46
9])|([469])|(11))[\/](([1-9])|([0-2][0-9])|(30)))|((2|02)[\/](([1-9])|([
0-2]
[0-9]))))[\/]\d{4}(1|01|2|02|3|03|4|04|5|05|6|06|7|07|8|08|9|09|10|11|12
{1,2
}):(([0-5]{1}[0-9]{1}\s{0,1})([AM|PM|am|pm]{2,2}))\W{0}$

I'd like the format to be
MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM AM/PM
-the time is optional for the user to enter
-the date is mandatory
-I'd like to be able to accept either 5/1/2002 or 05/01/2002 as the date

So, if anyone could help me out with that, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks
--
Melissa Whalen, BBA/IS, AIT

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Reply to this message...
 
    
Darren Neimke
Melissa,

Sorry, I don't actually have the framework installed here to do a test,
so I've whipped up a javascript demo version - please let me know if you
have trouble reading javascript.

Anyways, I wanted to create this demo to give you an idea of what I was
talking about before. Save it as "RE_Reuseable.html" and fire it up in
a browser to see it in action:

------------------------------ RE_Reuseable.html -------------------

<HTML><HEAD>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=3D"javascript">

var RE_DATE                =3D
"(0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])+[\/-](0[1-9]|1[0-2])+[\/-](200[2-9]|[1-9][0-9]
)"
var RE_TIME                =3D
"(0?[1-9]|1[012])+\:(0?[0-9]|[12345][0-9]) [aApP]M"
var RE_DATETIME            =3D '^(' + RE_DATE + ' ' + RE_TIME + ')$'
var RE_DATETIME_optEITHER    =3D '^(' + RE_DATE + '|' + RE_TIME + ')$'
var RE_DATETIME_optTIME        =3D '^(' + RE_DATE + ' ' + RE_TIME + '|' +
RE_DATE + ')$'
var RE_DATETIME_optDATE        =3D '^(' + RE_DATE + ' ' + RE_TIME + '|' +
RE_TIME + ')$'

function ApplyPattern( str )
{
var result
var reDateTime
=09
// matching just the date
reDateTime =3D new RegExp( "^" + RE_DATE + "$" )
result =3D reDateTime.test( str )
alert( "Using " + RE_DATE + "\nreturned: " + result )
=20
reDateTime =3D null
=20
// matching just the time
reDateTime =3D new RegExp( RE_TIME )
result =3D reDateTime.test( str )
alert( "Using " + RE_TIME + "\nreturned: " + result )
=20
reDateTime =3D null
=09
// matching the date and the time
reDateTime =3D new RegExp( RE_DATETIME )
result =3D reDateTime.test( str )
alert( "Using " + RE_DATETIME + "\nreturned: " + result )
=20
reDateTime =3D null
=09
// matching the date with the time being optional
reDateTime =3D new RegExp( RE_DATETIME_optTIME )
result =3D reDateTime.test( str )
alert( "Using " + RE_DATETIME_optTIME + "\nreturned: " + result )
}
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD><BODY>
<form>
<input type=3D"text" name=3D"DateTime" value=3D"" />
<input type=3D"button" value=3D"[ Test ]" onClick=3D"ApplyPattern(
this.form.DateTime.value ) ;" /> </form> </BODY> </HTML>
Reply to this message...
 
    
Darren Neimke
Just to take the whole concept of modularization 1 step further, I think
that something like the patterns below help to make Regular Expressions
*much* more maintainable:

--------------------------------- Modular_REs.html --------------------

// Define Date Class members...
var RE_DATE_DAY                =3D "(0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])"
// any day between 01 and 31
var RE_DATE_MONTH                =3D "(0[1-9]|1[0-2])"
// any month between 01 and 12
var RE_DATE_YEAR                =3D
"(200[2-9]|[1-9][0-9])"    // any time between 1900 and 2009
var RE_DATE_SEPARATOR            =3D "[\/-]"
// accept either "/" or "-"

// Define Time Class members...
var RE_TIME_HOUR        =3D "(0?[1-9]|1[012])"        // hour
between 1 and 12, if < 10, optional leading zero
var RE_TIME_MINUTE    =3D "(0?[0-9]|[12345][0-9])"    // min between 0
and 59, if < 10, optional leading zero
var RE_TIME_AMPM        =3D "[aApP][Mm]"            //
accept any casing combination of am|pm
var RE_TIME_SEPARATOR    =3D "\:"                // separate
hours and minutes with the ":" char

// Create derived expressions...
var RE_DATE                =3D RE_DATE_DAY +
RE_DATE_SEPARATOR + RE_DATE_MONTH + RE_DATE_SEPARATOR + RE_DATE_YEAR
var RE_TIME                =3D RE_TIME_HOUR +
RE_TIME_SEPARATOR + RE_TIME_MINUTE + ' ' + RE_TIME_AMPM
var RE_DATETIME            =3D '^(' + RE_DATE + ' ' + RE_TIME + ')$'
var RE_DATETIME_optEITHER    =3D '^(' + RE_DATE + '|' + RE_TIME + ')$'
var RE_DATETIME_optTIME        =3D '^(' + RE_DATE + ' ' + RE_TIME + '|' +
RE_DATE + ')$'
var RE_DATETIME_optDATE        =3D '^(' + RE_DATE + ' ' + RE_TIME + '|' +
RE_TIME + ')$'
Reply to this message...
 
 
System.DateTime




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