Regular Expression Match to test for a valid year

Question

Given a value I want to validate it to check if it is a valid year. My criteria is simple where the value should be an integer with 4 characters. I know this is

Answer 1

I use this regex in Java ^(0[1-9]|1[012])[/](0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])[/](19|[2-9][0-9])[0-9]{2}$

Works from 1900 to 9999

Answer 2

In theory the 4 digit option is right. But in practice it might be better to have 1900-2099 range.

Additionally it need to be non-capturing group. Many comments and answers propose capturing grouping which is not proper IMHO. Because for matching it might work, but for extracting matches using regex it will extract 4 digit numbers and two digit (19 and 20) numbers also because of paranthesis.

This will work for exact matching using non-capturing groups:

(?:19|20)\d{2}

Answer 3

you can go with sth like [^-]\d{4}$: you prevent the minus sign - to be before your 4 digits.
you can also use ^\d{4}$ with ^ to catch the beginning of the string. It depends on your scenario actually...

Answer 4

Years from 1000 to 2999

^[12][0-9]{3}$

For 1900-2099

^(19|20)\d{2}$

Answer 5

Use;

^(19|[2-9][0-9])\d{2}$ 

for years 1900 - 9999.

No need to worry for 9999 and onwards - A.I. will be doing all programming by then !!! Hehehehe

You can test your regex at https://regex101.com/

Also more info about non-capturing groups ( mentioned in one the comments above ) here http://www.manifold.net/doc/radian/why_do_non-capture_groups_exist_.htm

Answer 6

If you need to match YYYY or YYYYMMDD you can use:

^((?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[1-9]\d)(?:0[48]|[2468][048]|[13579][26])|(?:(?:[2468][048]|[13579][26])00))(?:0?2(?:29)))|(?:(?:[1-9]\d{3})(?:(?:(?:0?[13578]|1[02])(?:31))|(?:(?:0?[13-9]|1[0-2])(?:29|30))|(?:(?:0?[1-9])|(?:1[0-2]))(?:0?[1-9]|1\d|2[0-8])))))|(?:19|20)\d{2})$