$re = '~(([0-3]\d)/(0[4-9]|1[012]))/1999~m';
$str = '01/03/1999 too early
30/03/1999 too early
01/04/1999
31/04/1999 invalid date (month-specific)
35/04/1999 invalid date
30/05/1999
31/05/1999';
preg_match_all($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