title: Using Java regex to validate date from a long string
body: <p>I'm trying to write a Java routine that can parse out dates from a long string, i.e. given the string: </p>
  
  <pre><code>"Please have the report to me by 6/15, because the shipment comes in on 6/18" 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The regex would find both 6/15 and 6/18. I've looked on Stack Overflow and elsewhere, and most examples of a date regex simply verify whether a given string is a date or not, rather than finding dates within a larger amount of text. Ideally, I'd want a regex that could identify all of the main ways people numerically write dates i.e <code>6/15</code>, <code>6/15/12</code>, <code>06/15/12</code>, <code>15/6/12</code>, <code>15/06/12</code>, although perhaps it would be best to separate these into different regexes for the purpose of cla. I'm new to regexes (I just started learning about them two days ago) and regexes are still a bit cryptic to me, so I'd appreciate a detailed explanation of any regex suggestions.</p>