Date Validation Codeigniter - php

Question

I'm creating a validation for the post in my Controller.
I have a problem about the date.
I have created in applications/libraries a MY_Form_validation.php page in which I wrote this:
public function valid_date($date, $format = 'Y-m-d') {
$d = DateTime::createFromFormat($date, $format);
return $d && $d->format($format) === $date;
}
Then I have created the form_validation_lang.php with
<?php
$lang['form_validation_valid_date'] = 'The field {field} is not a valid date';
While in my controller I have:
//load the libraries
$this->form_validation->set_rules('birthdate', 'birthdate', 'trim|required|valid_date');
if($this->form_validation->run() == FALSE){
$errors = $this->form_validation->error_array();
var_dump($errors);
$this->response($errors, 500);
return;
}
$person = array(
//..
'birthdate' => $this->post('birthdate'),
//...
);
It prints me that:
'birthdate' => 'string'
About my DB at the beginning my field was Data, and i received this error. Than I have changed to Datetime but the error is the same.
Now it's:
birthdate date NOT NULL,
Now for example I'm trying to post a date like '1960-04-20' and I receive back the error:
"birthdate": "The field birthdate is not a valid date"
I want to write in the db only the date and not the time, could be this the problem??
How can I do to validate date?
Thank you

Answer 1

Replace your function with next:
public function valid_date($date, $format = 'Y-m-d') {
$d = new DateTime($date);
return $d && $d->format($format) === $date;
}
Demo
Or with next one:
public function valid_date($date, $format = 'Y-m-d') {
$d = DateTime::createFromFormat($format,$date); // <-- replace arguments
return $d && $d->format($format) === $date;
}
Demo
DateTime::createFromFormat() documentation
You need to cast this string, after success validation, into DATE datatype and only then send it into DB. Or you can write "to_date($stringvar,$format)" in your SQL query.
Seems like CodeIgniter doesn't likes default variables in validation options. I mean, you can't declare $format = 'Y-m-d' as an argument. So, it would work if you won't use it:
public function valid_date_dmY($str)
{
$d = DateTime::createFromFormat('d.m.Y',$str);
return $d && $d->format('d.m.Y') === $str;
}