Can this date-validation function can be simplified further or is it the correct approach?

Question

I am doing a date validation. I have no. of pages, which have the date field. User can input the date like "220875" or "22AUG75" - I need to test both and check the length as well.

function isValidDate(newDate) {

    newDate[1] = newDate[1]-1;
    newDate[2] = (parseInt(newDate[2]) < 50) ? 2000 + parseInt(newDate[2]) : 1900 + parseInt(newDate[2]);

    var testDate = new Date(newDate[2], newDate[1], newDate[0]);

    if (testDate.getDate()!=newDate[0] || testDate.getMonth()!=newDate[1] || testDate.getFullYear()!=newDate[2]) {
        return false;
    } else {
        return {valid : true, date : testDate};
    }

}

var sandBox = {
    init:function(params){
        this.element = $(params.element),
        this.value = params.value,
        this.mode = params.num;
    },
    isNotEmpty:function(){
        if(!this.value.length) {
           this.errorHandler(this.emptyMsg);
        } else {
            this.errorHandler(true);
            return true;
        }
    },
    errorHandler: function (msg) {
        var errorHolder = this.element.siblings('span');        
        if(msg !== true)
            errorHolder.html(msg).show();
        else errorHolder.html("").hide();
    },
    emptyMsg : "Date field should not be empty",
    digitLengthMsg : "The Length of the value should be ",
    onlyNumber : {
        num : /\D/,
        str : /^\d{2}[a-zA-Z]{3}\d{2}$/,
        mon : /[a-zA-Z]{3}/,
        msg : "Only Digits allowed"
    },
    getMonthFromString : function(mon){
        var month =  new Date(Date.parse(mon +" 01, 12")).getMonth()+1;
        month = month < 10 ? '0'+ month : month;
        return month;
    },
    isValidData : function () {

        var result =  this.onlyNumber.str.test(this.value);

        if(this.mode && result) {
            this.errorHandler(this.onlyNumber.msg)
            return false;
        }
        else if (!this.mode && result) {
            var currentMonth = this.getMonthFromString(this.value.match(this.onlyNumber.mon)[0]);
            this.value = this.value.replace(/([a-zA-Z]){3}/g, currentMonth);
            return true;
        }
        else if (this.mode && this.value.length !== 6) {
            this.errorHandler(this.digitLengthMsg + '6');
            return false;
        }
        else if (!this.mode && this.value.length !== 7) {
            this.errorHandler(this.digitLengthMsg + '7');
            return false;
        }
        else {
            this.errorHandler(true);
            return true;
        }
    },

    DateIsOk:function() {
        if(this.isNotEmpty() && this.isValidData()) {
            var verifyDate = this.value.match(/.{1,2}/g);
            return isValidDate(verifyDate);
        }
    }


};

var dateValidator = function (e) {
    var value = e.target.value;
    sandBox.init({
        value : value, 
        element : e.target,
        num : true //set month status true means validation by digits, false means digits with string
    });

   var fieldValue = sandBox.DateIsOk();

   if(fieldValue) {
    console.log(fieldValue);
   }

};

var dateField = $('input');
dateField.on('keyup focusout', dateValidator);

Live Demo

Answer 1

Can this be simplified ? Most certainly.

• You can take advantage of the fact that new Date( 'APR 04 1977' ) and new Date( '04 04 1977' ) both work, so you don't need getMonthFromString
• You can take more out of regexes with capturing groups
• You can get rid of the whole Sandbox construct which does not make a lot of sense to me
• You can write it so that the validator can accept but num:true and num:false, it can only make the user happier ;)
• Not too excited by YY, we spent billions fixing Y2K, and here you come creating more trouble ;)
• You don't need value if you have element ( simply call val() )
• isValidDate seems overkill, if you ask for 30 feb 2014, then testDate.getTime() will be NaN

My counter proposal code is about 1/3rd of yours:

function DateHandler(elementId, _mandatory) {
    this.$dateField = $('#' + elementId);
    this.mandatory = _mandatory || false;
    this.$dateField.on('keyup focusout', this.validate.bind(this));
}

DateHandler.prototype.validate = function () {
    this.error('');
    var text = this.$dateField.val().toUpperCase(), matches;
    if (text.length === 0) {
        if (mandatory) {
            this.error('Field should not be empty');
        }
        return;
    } else if (text.length == 6) {
        matches = /([0-3][0-9])([0-1][0-9])(\d\d)/.exec(text);
    } else if (text.length == 7) {
        matches = /([0-3][0-9])(\w\w\w)(\d\d)/.exec(text);
    }
    if (!matches) {
        return this.error('Field should be of format DDMMYY or DDMMMYY');
    }
    value = new Date(matches[2] + ' ' + matches[1] + " " + (matches[3] < 50 ? 20 : 19) + matches[3]);
    if (isNaN(value.getTime())) {
        return this.error('Not a valid date');
    }
    console.log(value);
};

DateHandler.prototype.error = function (message) {
    var label = this.$dateField.siblings('span');
    message ? label.html(message).show() : label.hide();
};

var dateHandler1 = new DateHandler('d1');
var dateHandler2 = new DateHandler('d2');

I tested this fairly well on JsFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/konijn_gmail_com/985ut/