$re = '/(?<=<td.*?>)([0-3]?[0-9])\/([0-3]?[0-9])\/((?:[0-9]{2})?[0-9]{2})(?=.*?<\/td>)/m';
$str = '<table>
<tr>
<td class="test">9/2/2021 10:59:15 AM</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="test">12/15/2015 12:10:45 PM</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="test">10/10/2012 5:00:10 AM</td>
</tr>
</table>
';
$subst = "$1.$2.$3";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php