Isolate Date in string

Maybe this will help. Their example is looking for dates in the format 05/22/2012

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10710950/powershell-extract-timestamp-from-string

... parse out the date/time string with a regular expression and then convert it to a date/time object:

$line = 'C:\Documents and Settings\admin\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\SyncToy\2.0\SyncToyLog.log:325:SYNC: 05/22/2012 14:54:55:857: SyncToy run of Profile Backup (C:\Documents and Settings\admin\, H:\Sync\) completed at 5:22/2012 2:54:55 PM.'

$dateTimeString = [regex]::Matches($line, '(\d\d/\d\d/\d\d\d\d.+): ')[0].Groups[1].Value

Then convert it to a datetime object:

$provider = New-Object System.Globalization.CultureInfo "en-US"

$dateTime = [datetime]::ParseExact($dateTimeString, 'MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss:fff', $provider)

Now you can display it or store it in a variable however you want:

$dateTime -f 'MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss'

I tried that example, it didn't work for me.

Does it find any of the dates?

No.

$line = "ABC;12345;IU:TYU; Disabled 05/25/2012 CB00757"
$dateTimeString = [regex]::Matches($line, '(\d\d/\d\d/\d\d\d\d.+): ')[0].Groups[1].Value
$provider = New-Object System.Globalization.CultureInfo "en-US"
$dateTime = [datetime]::ParseExact($dateTimeString, 'MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss:fff', $provider)
$dateTime -f 'MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss'
Write-Host  $dateTime.

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Cannot index into a null array.
At E:\Scripts\User_Delete\test.ps1:2 char:81
+ $dateTimeString = [regex]::Matches($line, '(\d\d/\d\d/\d\d\d\d.+): ')[0].Groups[ <<<< 1].Value
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (1:Int32) [], RuntimeException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : NullArray

Exception calling "ParseExact" with "3" argument(s): "String was not recognized as a valid DateTime."
At E:\Scripts\User_Delete\test.ps1:4 char:35
+ $dateTime = [datetime]::ParseExact <<<< ($dateTimeString, 'MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss:fff', $provider)
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DotNetMethodException

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Try single quotes

$line = 'ABC;12345;IU:TYU; Disabled 05/25/2012 CB00757'

No Change.

Try

$StringRaw = "ABC;12345;IU:TYU; Disabled 05/25/2012 CB00757"
If ($StringRaw -match '\d\d/\d\d/\d\d\d\d') {
	$StringDateTime = [datetime]::ParseExact($Matches[0], 'MM/dd/yyyy', [System.Globalization.CultureInfo]::GetCultureInfo("en-US"))
	Write-Output "Date identified from string `'$StringRaw`': $StringDateTime"
} Else {
	Write-Error "Could not identify a date in string `'$StringRaw`'."
}

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BTW, I was messing around and came up with a regex pattern to do some validation of the date (what else am I supposed to do on a Saturday night?).  It handles the number of days correctly for each month, with the slight exception of February, where it always allows up to 29 days regardless of whether it's a leap year or not, and it allows years in the range 1900-2099 (didn't bother to account for the possibility of two-digit years).  It works for both single digit days and months or zero-padded.

"\b((((0?[469])|(11))/((0?[1-9])|([12]\d)|(30))|((0?[13578])|(1[02]))/((0?[1-9])|([12]\d)|(3[01]))|(0?2/(0?[1-9])|([12]\d)))/((19\d{2})|(20\d{2})))\b"

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Thank you footech - that worked like a charm