after putting brkets around the entire match, it eliminated the problem of printing eveything else on the line, however it isnt printing the entire date match.
$dir='C:/texts/'; opendir(directory,$dir) or die "cant"; while($file=readdir directory){ next if $file=~/^\./; $rfname=$dir.$file; # print "Found file: '$rfname'\n"; open (CONT, $rfname); while (<CONT>){ if($_=~m/([0-3]?[0-9(th)?(st)?(nd)?(rd)?]\s+Jan(uary)?|Feb(ruary)? +|Mar(ch)?|Apr(il)?|May|Jun(e)?|Jul(y)?|Aug(ust)?|Sep(tember)?|Oct(obe +r)?|Nov(ember)?|Dec(ember)?\s+[0-9]?[0-9]?[0-9][0-9])/ig){ print "$file\t $1\n"; } elsif($_=~m/(Jan(uary)?|Feb(ruary)?|Mar(ch)?|Apr(il)?|May|Jun(e)?| +Jul(y)?|Aug(ust)?|Sep(tember)?|Oct(ober)?|Nov(ember)?|Dec(ember)?\s+[ +1-3]?[0-9](th)?(nd)?(st)?(rd)?\s+[0-9]?[0-9]?[0-9][0-9])/ig){ print "$file\t $1\n"; } } }
if someone can solve this problem, please help.

In reply to $1 by Anonymous Monk

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