I'm building a php form and just want to test a field to see if the date is in the proper format without using a function...

I know just enough php to get the form working...other than this...got the testing for a proper e-mail address working, but can't get this to work...

I've tried this, but it's not working...anyone? The format should be MM/DD/YYYY

Code:
$result=preg_match("/^(\d{2})/(\d{2})/(\d{4})$/",$date);
if(!$result){
	echo "Enter a valid date";
	exit;
}
I also tried:

Code:
$result=ereg("^(\d{2})/(\d{2})/(\d{4})+$",$date);
but I don't know enough about what the punctuation symbols ^,/,(,{ and [ represent to get it working correctly...

version 4.4.7

TIA