Im currently facing a problem:

I have .txt file which im going through.. I want to validate if a line of text contains date (format: yyyy/mm/dd).

Line example: 2015/01/05 12 John's mother.

Regex im using: var dateType = /^(\d{4})([\/-])(\d{1,2})\2(\d{1,2})$/;

What would be the best way to reach this?

Thank you in advance!

Im currently facing a problem:

I have .txt file which im going through.. I want to validate if a line of text contains date (format: yyyy/mm/dd).

Line example: 2015/01/05 12 John's mother.

Regex im using: var dateType = /^(\d{4})([\/-])(\d{1,2})\2(\d{1,2})$/;

What would be the best way to reach this?

Thank you in advance!

• javascript
• string
• html
• date

Share Improve this question Follow asked Sep 16, 2015 at 12:37 Roland RuulRoland Ruul 1,25299 silver badges1515 bronze badges

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 6

Well the only real problem with your regex not working is that you are trying to match start ^ and end $. So remove those for a 'contains' logic:

/(\d{4})([\/-])(\d{1,2})\2(\d{1,2})/

You can then use this regex in your javascript with the test() function as follows:

var dateType = /(\d{4})([\/-])(\d{1,2})\2(\d{1,2})/;
var isMatch = dateType.test(myLine[i]);

if(isMatch){
    //...
}

Here is a working example

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However, if you know it will always start with a date, then keep the ^. That way you are less likely to get unexpected matches if for example you don't want lines that end with a date.