$re = '/^\w+(?: \w+)* +V\d{1,2}\.\d{1,2} +(?:3[01]|[12][0-9]|0[1-9])\/(?:1[0-2]|0[1-9])\/(?:20)?[0-9]{2}/m';
$str = 'hardware -v
...(need to ignore junk here in case there is any)
MyHardware V1.23 01/02/20 (This is the only line I need)
PROCESSOR:xxxxxxxxxx
abc <n> <c> [r]
def <n> <c> [r]
MyHardware V1.23 01/02/03
MyHardware V12.34 01/02/03
MyHardware V1.23 01/02/2003
MyHardware V12.34 01/02/2003
My Hardware V1.23 01/02/20';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
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