$re = '/^(?=\d{2}([-.,\/])\d{2}\1\d{4}$)(?:0[1-9]|1\d|[2][0-8]|29(?!.02.(?!(?!(?:[02468][1-35-79]|[13579][0-13-57-9])00)\d{2}(?:[02468][048]|[13579][26])))|30(?!.02)|31(?=.(?:0[13578]|10|12))).(?:0[1-9]|1[012]).\d{4}$/';
$str = '29/02/2000';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($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