title: Finding if a string contains a date and time
body: <p>I am working on a project where I am reading in a file which could come in two different formats, one includes a date and time and the other doesn't. </p>
  
  <p>When I read in the first line I need to check whether the string contains the date and time or not and read the file and based on the check read the file in a certain way. </p>
  
  <p>I'm guessing this would be some kind of regular expression but have no idea where to start and can't find anything relevant.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for any help you can provide. </p>
  
  <p><strong>UPDATE</strong>
  I don't think I've been very clear as to what I am asking. When I read the log file line by line the line may come in as:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Col1   Col2  Col3  Col4  Col5 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Sometimes the line may come in as </p>
  
  <pre><code>Col1  17-02-2013 02:05:00 Col2  Col3  Col4  Col5
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I read the line I need to do a check whether there is a date and time string contained within the string. </p>