$find='\\d{2}-\\d{2}-\\d{4}'

##</code><code>##

\d{2}-\d{2}-\d{4}

##</code><code>##

perl -pi.bak -e "s|d{2}-d{2}-d{4}|...|g" ...

##</code><code>##

my $find    = '\\d{2}-\\d{2}-\\d{4}';
my $replace = '{date}';

s/$find/$replace/

##</code><code>##

my $find    = '(\\d{2}-\\d{2})-(\\d{4})';
my $replace = '$2-$1';

eval "s/\$find/$replace/"