How to extract date from string using javascript

Question

How does one extract a date from a string using javascript? It can be in the following formats:

31.07.2014

07.31.2014

2014.07.31 the same format but divi

Answer 1

probably use a regex like

/(\d{4}([.\-/ ])\d{2}\2\d{2}|\d{2}([.\-/ ])\d{2}\3\d{4})/

\d - a digit (equivilant to character class [0-9]
{n} - match n characters
[.\-/ ] - character class matches a single . - / or space (- needs to be escaped because it indicates a range in a character class
\n - a backreference matches the nth match so / will match another / and not a -, /, space or .

you can pull out the first part of the regex and inspect it, it is the same as the second part, except the 4 digits and 2 digits have been swapped

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