DatePicker required validation is inconsistent when clearing different segments (month vs day/year)

[massimopalmieri]

Provide a general summary of the issue here

The DatePicker component appears to validate inconsistently when a required field has individual date segments cleared.

🤔 Expected Behavior?

If the field is required, then clearing any required segment (year, day, or month) and blurring the input should produce a validation error consistently.

😯 Current Behavior

The DatePicker appears to validate inconsistently when a user clears different date segments after first selecting a valid date.

💁 Possible Solution

No response

🔦 Context

No response

🖥️ Steps to Reproduce

Using the documentation example:

1. Open https://react-aria.adobe.com/DatePicker
2. Locate the example labelled “Appointment date”
3. Select a valid date from the calendar
4. Clear the year segment
5. Blur the input
6. A validation error is shown
7. Restore a valid date
8. Clear the day segment
9. Blur the input
10. A validation error is shown
11. Restore a valid date
12. Clear the month segment
13. Blur the input
14. No validation error is shown

Version

1.16.0

What browsers are you seeing the problem on?

Chrome

If other, please specify.

No response

What operating system are you using?

MacOS Tahoe 26.4.1

🧢 Your Company/Team

No response

🕷 Tracking Issue

No response

[LFDanLu]

So the reason for this is that as you are modifying a segment, we've track the changes resulting from each digit deletion, and end up using that for validation when the segment becomes completely deleted. This means in your reproduction, deleting the day or year field from a starting valid date of "4/28/2026" yields "4/2/2026" or "4/28/2" which both fall out of the range. However, deleting the month only takes a single back space and thus the last fully defined date is the same one that you've started with. I think ideally we'd invalidate the field if the date is incomplete in general.

[mryechkin]

I think ideally we'd invalidate the field if the date is incomplete in general.

Would love to see this implemented 🙏 We've had users complain several times that this behaviour (the one described by OP) is unintuitive - to the point where they have to do a hacky workaround to get validation to fire on blur, as they would expect.

[0xZeroTrace]

@mryechkin we are using react hook form to handle form state and validation and the sample code snippet for the same:

<Controller name="withdrawalDate" control={methods.control} rules={{ validate: validateWithdrawalDate, }} render={({ field }) => ( <DatePickerField label={dateSectionLabel} name={field.name} supportiveText={dateSectionSupportiveText} error={errors.withdrawalDate?.message?.toString()} isInvalid={!!errors.withdrawalDate} marginBottom="05" value={field.value as any} onChange={field.onChange} minValue={minDate as any} maxValue={maxDate as any} isDateUnavailable={isDateUnavailableFn as any} onFocus={trackCalendarButton} onBlur={field.onBlur} /> )} />

[AKnassa]

Hi! I'd like to take this on if it's available.

I reproduced the inconsistency on the DatePicker docs example —
clearing the year or day segment after blur surfaces a validation
error, but clearing the month segment does not.

My plan would be to start by tracing where the month-clear path
diverges from day/year through useDatePickerState / useDateSegment,
then add tests covering each segment's clear-then-blur path before
submitting a fix. Happy to adjust scope or direction based on what
the team prefers.

I'll sign the Adobe CLA before opening the PR.