Boneyard Tools

Extract Dates From Text

Paste an email, log or document and pull out every date it mentions, one per line. It recognises ISO dates like 2026-06-11, slash dates like 06/11/2026, and written dates such as June 11, 2026 or 11 June 2026 with full or abbreviated month names. Turn on remove duplicates or sort to tidy the list, then copy it in a click.

How to extract dates

  1. Paste your text into the Your text box, or type it in directly.
  2. Watch the Dates box fill with every match, one per line, and see the running count.
  3. Tick Remove duplicates to drop repeats, keeping the first spelling of each date.
  4. Tick Sort to order the list alphabetically by the date text.
  5. Click Copy to put the whole list on your clipboard.

Examples

Three formats in one sentence

Filed 2026-06-11, served 06/11/2026, hearing June 11, 2026.
2026-06-11
06/11/2026
June 11, 2026

Ordinals and abbreviated months

Born 1st Jan 2020; graduated 15 Jun 2024.
1st Jan 2020
15 Jun 2024

Remove duplicates keeps one copy

Reminder 2026-07-05, reminder 2026-07-05.
2026-07-05

Frequently asked questions

Which date formats are detected?

Four written forms: ISO dates like 2026-06-11, slash dates like 06/11/2026, Month D, YYYY like June 11, 2026, and D Month YYYY like 11 June 2026. Full and abbreviated month names, optional ordinals such as 1st, and an optional comma are all recognised.

How are ambiguous slash dates handled?

Because 06/11/2026 could be month-day or day-month depending on region, the date is copied exactly as written. It is never reordered or reinterpreted, so you keep the original meaning.

Will it match a plain number by mistake?

No. A bare number with no separators or month name, such as a year, price or invoice number on its own, is not treated as a date. Word boundaries also stop a date being pulled out of a longer token.

Are impossible dates filtered out?

Numeric dates are range checked, so a month above 12 or a day above 31, like 2026-13-01, is skipped. It does not verify a day against a specific month, so an entry like Feb 30 within range can still slip through.

Does it handle two-digit years?

No. Every pattern requires a four-digit year, so 06/11/26 or June 11, 26 is not matched. Expand the year to four digits if you need those found.

Does it find times or weekday names?

No. It extracts calendar dates only, so clock times like 3:30 pm and weekday words like Monday are ignored even when they sit right next to a date.

Are non-English month names supported?

No. Only English month names, both full like September and short like Sep, are recognised. Text in other languages needs its months translated first.

How do Remove duplicates and Sort behave?

Remove duplicates compares dates without regard to case and keeps the first spelling it saw. Sort orders the list alphabetically by the literal text, which is not the same as chronological order, so 10 Feb 2026 sorts before 5 Jan 2026.

Is my text private?

Yes. The scan runs in your browser with a local pattern match, so nothing you paste is uploaded or stored anywhere.

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