Year auto padding issue on keyboard input

[kangelSL]

When the keyboard is used to delete a year value, the blur event auto populates it to an incorrect value.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Select a valid date value e.g. 15/07/2026
2. Delete a single digit from the input using the keyboard e.g. 15/07/202
3. Click out to fire the blur event

Expected behavior

The date input clears the value entirely as it is invalid

Actual behaviour

The date blur event pads out the date to 15/07/0202. This puts in an incorrect value if the user accidentally leaves a date incomplete when using the keyboard

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Windows
• Browser - Chrome but likely replicable in any browser
• Version - 9.1.0 version of datepicker

[balajis-qb]

Hi @kangelSL ,

I dug into why this happens: DatePicker parses the input on every keystroke (not just on blur), via handleChange → parseDate. The example doesn't pass a dateFormat, so it falls back to the library default, "MM/dd/yyyy" (this can be changed via the dateFormat prop, e.g. dateFormat="yyyy-MM-dd", but the same leniency applies to whatever format's yyyy token you end up using). parseDate uses date-fns' parse with strictParsing: false by default, and date-fns' yyyy token is lenient against that format — it will accept a partial value like "202" as a valid year. So when you delete the trailing 6 from 07/15/2026, the in-progress value 07/15/202 parses to a valid Date (year 202), and it gets committed as the selection while you're still mid-edit.

Setting strictParsing fixes this:

<DatePicker
  strictParsing
  selected={selectedDate}
  onChange={setSelectedDate}
/>

With strictParsing={true}, the parsed date has to round-trip exactly back through the format string before it's accepted. 07/15/202 reformatted as MM/dd/yyyy becomes 07/15/0202, which doesn't match the raw input, so parsing fails and returns null instead of committing a bogus date.

[kangelSL]

Thanks - I had found strictParsing as an option but wanted to check with you if there was another option.
The props documentation might need updating also - I found strictParsing from the code, I think it's missing from the docs. It could be useful for others who come across the same issue.