$re = '/^(19|20)\d{2}(?:-(?:0[1-9]|1[0-2])(?:-(?:0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01]))?)?$/m';
$str = '1921-00
1921-
1921-1
192-22
2009
2009-12
2009-13
1921-5-4
1899-12-31
1900-01-01
2099-12-31
2100-01-01';
preg_match_all($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