Card Expiry Date (MM/YY or MM/YYYY) Regex for PHP

What this pattern does

This page provides a well-structured, multi-part regular expression for matching card expiry date (mm/yy or mm/yyyy), ported and verified for PHP. Financial data validation has zero tolerance for false negatives — a missed invalid entry can corrupt downstream calculations. The snippet below is ready to drop into your PHP project — whether you're validating in a Laravel validator, a WordPress plugin, or a standalone PHP script.

Php Implementation

<?php
// Card Expiry Date (MM/YY or MM/YYYY)
// ReDoS-safe | RegexVault — Finance > Card Numbers

define('CARD_EXPIRY_DATE_MMYY_OR_MMYYYY_PATTERN', '/^(0[1-9]|1[0-2])\/(?:20[0-9]{2}|[2-9][0-9])$/');

function validate_card_expiry_date_mmyy_or_mmyyyy(string $input): bool {
    return (bool) preg_match(CARD_EXPIRY_DATE_MMYY_OR_MMYYYY_PATTERN, $input);
}

// Example
var_dump(validate_card_expiry_date_mmyy_or_mmyyyy("01/24")); // bool(true)

Test Cases

When to use this pattern

This pattern is drawn from the Finance > Card Numbers category and carries a ReDoS-safe certification. That matters for PHP developers because especially relevant in PHP where PCRE backtracking limits can trigger silent failures on malicious input. RegexVault audits patterns against known backtracking attack vectors, ensuring you have the necessary context before using this regex in a high-stakes production environment.

Common Pitfalls

Technical Notes

Capture group 1: month (01-12), group 2: year (2-digit or 4-digit). 2-digit years in the range 20-99 map to 2020-2099. Cards expired but still within the grace period may still be valid — check against today's date at application level.