How to test if a variable is in the right format

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

How can I test a variable to see if its in the right format?

The format for the variable would be 'DDMMYYYY HH:MM:SS' and is passed from a command line argument.

Any help would be appreciated

2

Perhaps try using the touch command, e.g...

MMDD=$(expr substr "$*" 1 4)
YYYY=$(expr substr "$*" 5 4)
hh=$(expr substr "$*" 10 2)
mm=$(expr substr "$*" 13 2)
ss=$(expr substr "$*" 16 2)
if touch -c -t $YYYY$MMDD$hh$mm.$ss dummyfile
then
   echo valid
else
   echo invalid
fi
3

Thanks very much

Your help is really appreciated