ereg / preg_match time validation

Hi, I want to validate the time the user has entered to see whether it's in the correct format (12 hour format).

From googling around I found:

PHP Code:

---

# Returns time in HH:MM[AM|PM] format if it matches, else false
function checkTime($time)
{
return (preg_match('/[\s0]*(\d|1[0-2]):(\d{2})\s*([AaPp][Mm])/xms', $time, $match))
? sprintf('%02d:%d%s', $match[1], $match[2], strtoupper($match[3]))
: false;
} 


---

It almost works, but it allows 21:50pm, I don't have any knowledge of ereg / preg_match so I'm finding it hard to alter it to fix it.

Anyone know what I need to do to fix it? Or come up with a better solution?

Thanks.

PHP Code:

---

<?php
/*
VALID:
02:57am
12:53PM

INVAID:
2:57am
05:15 PM
13:11Pm
12:00aM
*/
function check_12hour_time($str){
    preg_match('/^(0[1-9]|1[0-2]):(0[1-9]|[1-5][0-9])(AM|PM|pm|am)$/', $str, $matches);
    return !$matches ? false:array('hours' => $matches[1], 'minutes' => $matches[2], 'tod' => $matches[3]);
}
var_dump(check_12hour_time('11:59PM'));

---

That works great, thanks! :)

PHP Code:

---

<?php

$time = '21:50PM';

// Returns 1 if valid, 0 if not valid, false if $time hasn't been set
function check12Hour($time = null) {

if (!$time)
    return false;

return preg_match('/^(0[1-9]|1[0-2]):([0-5][0-9])(AM|PM)$/', $time);

}

echo check12Hour($time);

?>

---

I'm no expert with regex, but I am slowly getting better.

I think the trick is to build them one step at a time, testing it out as you go.

For example:

Start out with an idea of what valid is. In this case 09:00AM is valid.

Set up the format: '//'

Then go step by step:

Code:

---

'//'

'/^09:00AM$/' // ^ means starts with, $ means ends with

// The first "group" is the first two digits of the time
// Parenthesis around a group
// Now think about all possible values for the first two digits
// You can have a 0 followed by a 1-9 OR a 1 followed by a 0-2
// 0 followed by a 1-9 is written 0[1-9]
// Use | ( the pipe char ) for OR

'/^(0[1-9]|1[0-2]):00AM$/'

// Next you want a single colon, so type that.

// Then move on to the next group
// Parenthesis and follow the same idea as before

'/^(0[1-9]|1[0-2]):([0-5][0-9])AM$/'

// Then the AM OR PM gets some parenthesis

'/^(0[1-9]|1[0-2]):([0-5][0-9])(AM|PM)$/'

// And that's it

'/

---

On yeah, one more thing I forgot to mention. If you are programming PHP forget you ever heard about ereg.

@techietim - Your function almost worked :p, but didn't allow times like 05:00pm, or just any time with 2 0s for the minutes.

@JasonDFR - Thanks for your explanation, I've tested all my extremes and different values and so far all have passed, lucky you replied too :)

Thanks to both of you. Kudos.

[edit] And yes I did hear that ereg was being replaced by preg_match, since it's much faster and something else I can't remember, I only use it because I'm not very good at matches but I should spend some more time learning patterns as it seems really important when it comes to good validation.

Cool,

I'm confident the function I posted will work for you.

I realized techie didn't quite get it right. His problem was (0[1-9]|[1-5][0-9]) which would be ok for 01 - 09 OR 10 - 59, but not 00.

I'm not sure why he did that. What was your thinking Techie?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JasonDFR

I'm not sure why he did that. What was your thinking Techie?

---

Whoops :p

I was half asleep when I wrote that, so please excuse me.

hehe, No worries. That kinda thing happens to me when I'm wide awake.

Still guys, thanks for helping out - I'm getting so confused here converting 12 hour time to 24 hour for the database and then converting it back again for the user xD

PHP Code:

---

<?php

// Try this out:
echo ( date("H:i:s", strtotime("3:30 pm")) );

// MySQL query will select the time in 24 HOUR format and return it in 12 HOUR
$q = "SELECT TIME_FORMAT(time_column, '%r') as time FROM table WHERE ..." ;

---

Thanks for that, but I'd already made the necessary functions...

But while we're on the topic of validation I've made a function to validate the date as well, it works just as intended but I want to know how to return an error if the date is false.

Like : 31/04/2009 - Passes my preg_match() function as it is valid

But 31/04/2009 is not actually valid, and if you insert it into a database it truncates and ends up with 0000-00-00.

I tried the following to catch the error, but having no luck - any suggestions?

PHP Code:

---

// Insert date into empty row to test it is a valid date, e.g. User could input 31/04/2009 which passes the RegExp but is not a valid date
#MySQL error 1265 is output if data truncated
$query = "INSERT INTO appointments (`date`) VALUES('$date')";
if(mysql_query($query))
{
    if(mysql_errno() == 1265)
    {
        die("Invalid date.");
    }
} 


---

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.checkdate.php

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Schmoopy

Thanks for that, but I'd already made the necessary functions..

---

If you made functions for this, you shouldn't have. PHP and MySQL already have functions for this. That is what I posted above.

Just like checkdate() .

Ah I see, checkdate's very helpful - but I think it's better that I've made my own functions, as I'm doing it for my A2 coursework, so will hopefully get more marks :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Schmoopy

Ah I see, checkdate's very helpful - but I think it's better that I've made my own functions, as I'm doing it for my A2 coursework, so will hopefully get more marks :)

---

Ahh, I see. Hopefully you are right !