Spotting deadlines
List the dates in minutes or a contract to check each deadline in the original document.
Date extractor
Find the dates written in digits in a block of text (ISO, DD/MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY, with hyphens or dots) and get the list of matches, to be checked in context.
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How does this tool work?
Find the dates written in digits in minutes, a contract or an export, and get them one per line. The tool recognises date shapes; it drops impossible dates but does not convert them and does not resolve the day/month ambiguity. The text is analysed in your browser.
Two forms are recognised: a four-digit year first (2026-10-20, 2026/10/20, 2026.10.20) and the day or month first, with a two- to four-digit year (20/10/2026, 10/20/2026, 20-10-26, 20.10.2026). Accepted separators are the hyphen, the slash and the dot. Dates are returned as written, in order of appearance, duplicates included.
A date is kept only if it exists in the calendar, leap years included: “02/31/2026” or “45/13/2026” are dropped, “02/29/2024” is kept. For an ambiguous day/month form, one valid reading is enough. Digits that belong to a longer number (phone, IP address) are ignored, but a version such as “1.2.30” can still pass for a date. Dates in words (“March 12, 2026”), forms without a year (“12/03”) and times are not recognised.
A short numeric date is often ambiguous: “03/04/2026” means 4 March in the United States and 3 April in the UK and most of Europe. The tool does not decide: note the convention of the source document before creating deadlines, and prefer the ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD) for international exchanges.
How to use this tool
Paste the text
Paste the text that contains the dates.
Run the extraction
Click “Extract dates”: each date appears on its own line, as written.
Check the result
Check the day/month convention in the source text, the validity of each date and any false positives (phone or version numbers).
Use cases
Checking publication dates
Isolate the dates in several descriptions without assuming they all follow the same convention.
Preparing a calendar
Gather the detected dates, then validate and interpret them by hand before creating events.
Examples
ISO date
Input
Meeting on 2026-10-20.Result
2026-10-20Several formats in one text
Numeric dates are detected as written; “March 12, 2026”, written in words, is not.
Input
Delivery on 04/03/2026, reminder on 2026.05.12, meeting on March 12, 2026.Result
04/03/2026
2026.05.12False positives and an impossible date
The phone number and 31 February are dropped; the version “1.2.30”, which could be 1 February 2030, is kept: a human check remains necessary.
Input
Tel. 06.12.34.56.78; version 1.2.30; due 02/31/2026Result
1.2.30Tips and best practices
- A date such as 03/04/2026 is ambiguous: check whether the document uses month/day (US) or day/month (UK, Europe).
- To exchange dates without ambiguity, rewrite them in ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD), which also sorts correctly as text.
- To keep a single occurrence of each date, run the list through Remove duplicates afterwards.
Sources and references
Frequently asked questions
Are all dates recognised?
No. Only complete numeric dates with a hyphen, slash or dot are detected; dates in words, without a year or with a month name are not.
Are the dates validated?
Yes, against the calendar: “02/31/2026” or “45/13/2026” are not extracted. The tool cannot tell, however, whether a run of digits really is a date in your text.
Is 03/04/2026 ambiguous?
Yes. It is 4 March in the US convention and 3 April in the UK and European convention; the tool returns the date as written without interpreting it.
Is the result converted to a common format?
No. Each date keeps its original format and separators; nothing is converted to ISO 8601.
Are times and time zones extracted?
No. Only the date part is recognised: “2026-10-20T14:30” and “2026-10-20 14:30” both give 2026-10-20.
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