Replacing a string using preg_match

Question

I'm having trouble using preg_match to find and replace a string. The string of interest is:

<span style="font-size:0.6em">EXPIRATION DATE: 04/30/2011</span>

I need to target and replace the date, "04/30/2011" with a different date. Can someone throw me a bone a give me the regular expression to match this pattern using preg_match in PHP? I also need it to match in such a way that it only replaces up to the first closing span and not closing span tags later in the code, e.g.:

<span style="font-size:0.6em">EXPIRATION DATE: 04/30/2011</span><span class="hello"></span>

I'm not versed in regex, and although I've spent the last hour trying to learn enough to make this work, I'm utterly failing. Thanks so much!

EDIT: As you can see this has gotten me exhausted. I did mean preg_replace, not preg_match.

Answer 1

If you're after a replacement, consider using preg_replace(), something like

preg_replace('@(\d{2})/(\d{2})/(\d{4})@', '<new date>', $string);