Date format consists of one or two digits followed by a hyphen, followed by one or two digits, followed by a hypen, followed by four digits : Validation « Regular Expressions « Java Tutorial

1. Java Tutorial
2. Regular Expressions
3. Validation

public class MainClass {
  public static void main(String args[]) {

    String date = "12-12-1212";

    String datePattern = "\\d{1,2}-\\d{1,2}-\\d{4}";
    System.out.println(date.matches(datePattern));

  }
}