$re = '/(\d{2}[\/ ](\d{2}|January|Jan)[\/ ]\d{2,4})/';
$str = '12/12/2017
12/18/2017
12 January 2017
12 Jan 17
I want to apply for leaves from 12/12/2017 to 12/18/2017 I want to apply for leaves from 12 January 2017 to 12/18/2017 I want to apply for leaves from 12/12/2017 to 12 Jan 17 ';
preg_match_all($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