Regex date format validation on Java

Use the following regular expression:

^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$

as in

if (str.matches("\\d{4}-\\d{2}-\\d{2}")) {
    ...
}

With the matches method, the anchors ^ and $ (beginning and end of string, respectively) are present implicitly.

You need more than a regex, for example "9999-99-00" isn't a valid date. There's a SimpleDateFormat class that's built to do this. More heavyweight, but more comprehensive.

e.g.

SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");

boolean isValidDate(string input) {
     try {
          format.parse(input);
          return true;
     }
     catch(ParseException e){
          return false;
     }
}

Unfortunately, SimpleDateFormat is both heavyweight and not thread-safe.

Putting it all together:

• REGEX doesn't validate values (like "2010-19-19")
• SimpleDateFormat does not check format ("2010-1-2", "1-0002-003" are accepted)

it's necessary to use both to validate format and value:

public static boolean isValid(String text) {
    if (text == null || !text.matches("\\d{4}-[01]\\d-[0-3]\\d"))
        return false;
    SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
    df.setLenient(false);
    try {
        df.parse(text);
        return true;
    } catch (ParseException ex) {
        return false;
    }
}

private static final ThreadLocal<SimpleDateFormat> format = new ThreadLocal<SimpleDateFormat>() {
    @Override
    protected SimpleDateFormat initialValue() {
        SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
        df.setLenient(false);
        System.out.println("created");
        return df;
    }
};

public static boolean isValid(String text) {
    if (text == null || !text.matches("\\d{4}-[01]\\d-[0-3]\\d"))
        return false;
    try {
        format.get().parse(text);
        return true;
    } catch (ParseException ex) {
        return false;
    }
}

(same can be done for a Matcher, that also is not thread safe)

This will do it regex: "^((19|20)\\d\\d)-(0?[1-9]|1[012])-(0?[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$" This will take care of valid formats and valid dates. It will not validate the correct days of the month i.e. leap year.

String regex = "^((19|20)\\d\\d)-(0?[1-9]|1[012])-(0?[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])$";

Assert.assertTrue("Date: matched.", Pattern.matches(regex, "2011-1-1"));
Assert.assertFalse("Date (month): not matched.", Pattern.matches(regex, "2011-13-1"));

Good luck!