JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground
HTML
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/moment.js/2.15.1/moment.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/momentjs/2.15.1/moment-with-locales.min.js"></script>
JavaScript
var dateFormat = 'DD-MM-YYYY'
var shittyDate = "2016-10-19";
var splittedDate = shittyDate.split('-');
if (splittedDate.length == 3) {
var d = moment(splittedDate[2]+"-"+splittedDate[1]+"-"+splittedDate[0], dateFormat);
alert(d.isValid())
} else {
//incorrectFormat
}