match date pattern in the string vba excel - regex

Question

Edit:
Since my string became more and more complicated looks like regexp is the only way.
I do not have a lot experience in that and your help is much appreciated.
Basically from what I read on the web I construct the following exp to try matching occurrence in my sample string:
"My very long long string 12Mar2012 is right here 23Apr2015"
[0-9][0-9] + [a-zA-Z] + [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]
and trying this code. I do not have any match. Any good link on regexp tutorial much appreciated.
Dim re, match, RegExDate
Set re = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
re.Pattern = "(^[0-9][0-9] + [a-zA-Z] + [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]$)"
re.Global = True
For Each match In re.Execute(str)
MsgBox match.Value
RegExDate = match.Value
Exit For
Next
Thank you

Answer 1

This code validates the actual date from the Regexp using DateValuefor robustness
Sub Robust()
Dim Regex As Object
Dim RegexMC As Object
Dim RegexM As Object
Dim strIn As String
Dim BDate As Boolean
strIn = "My very long long string 12Mar2012 is right here 23Apr2015 and 30Feb2002"
Set Regex = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp")
With Regex
.Pattern = "(([0-9])|([0-2][0-9])|([3][0-1]))(Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec)(\d{4})"
.Global = True
If .test(strIn) Then
Set RegexMC = .Execute(strIn)
On Error Resume Next
For Each RegexM In RegexMC
BDate = False
BDate = IsDate(DateValue(RegexM.submatches(0) & " " & RegexM.submatches(4) & " " & RegexM.submatches(5)))
If BDate Then Debug.Print RegexM
Next
On Error GoTo 0
End If
End With
End Sub

Answer 2

thanks for all your help !!!
I managed to solve my problem using this simple code.
Dim rex As New RegExp
Dim dateCol As New Collection
rex.Pattern = "(\d|\d\d)(Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec)(\d{4})?"
rex.Global = True
For Each match In rex.Execute(sStream)
dateCol.Add match.Value
Next
Just note that on my side I'm sure that I got valid date in the string so the reg expression is easy.
thnx
Ilya

Answer 3

The following is a quick attempt I made. It's far from perfect.
Basically, it splits the string into words. While looping through the words it cuts off any punctuation (period and comma, you might need to add more).
When processing an item, we try to remove each month name from it. If the string gets shorter we might have a date.
It checks to see if the length of the final string is about right (5 or 6 characters, 1 or 2 + 4 for day and year)
You could instead (or also) check to see that there all numbers.
Private Const MonthList = "JAN,FEB,MAR,APR,MAY,JUN,JUL,AUG,SEP,OCT,NOV,DEC"
Public Function getDates(ByVal Target As String) As String
Dim Data() As String
Dim Item As String
Dim Index As Integer
Dim List() As String
Dim Index2 As Integer
Dim Test As String
Dim Result As String
List = Split(MonthList, ",")
Data = Split(Target, " ")
Result = ""
For Index = LBound(Data) To UBound(Data)
Item = UCase(Replace(Replace(Data(Index), ".", ""), ",", ""))
For Index2 = LBound(Data) To UBound(Data)
Test = Replace(Item, List(Index2), "")
If Not Test = Item Then
If Len(Test) = 5 Or Len(Test) = 6 Then
If Result = "" Then
Result = Item
Else
Result = Result & ", " & Item
End If
End If
End If
Next Index2
Next
getDates = Result
End Function