Hi

The variable expdate could have three states:
1.empty
2.N/A
3.mm/dd/yyyy

To test this variable, I've made this script:

1.... |awk '
2.    BEGIN {FS=":  " 
3.    getline expdate <"ExpDate.txt"
4.    }
5.      print "expdate :"$expdate
6.      if ($expdate = "[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9][0-9]")
7.      { 
8.        print "expdate are :"$expdate
9.      }else{
10.        print "The are no expdate"
11.     }
12.     }

echo "Hai" | nawk '
BEGIN {FS=": "
getline expdate <"ExpDate.txt";
}

{
print "expdate :"expdate
if (expdate ~ "[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]")
{
print "expdate are :"expdate
}else{
print "The are no expdate"
}
}'

Unfortunately it doesn't run!!!
is the sign ~ not equal to = ???

-nm

$ echo "Hai" | nawk '
>BEGIN {FS=": "
getline expdate <"ExpDate.txt";
}

{
print "expdate :"expdate>print "expdate :"expdate
if (expdate ~ "[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]")
{
print "expdate are :"expdate
}else{
print "The are no expdate"
}
}'
>getline expdate <"ExpDate.txt";
>}
>{
>print "expdate :"expdate
>if (expdate ~ "[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]")
>{
>print "expdate are :"expdate
>}else{
>print "The are no expdate"
>}
>}'
expdate :10/04/2000
expdate are :10/04/2000

I runs perfectly, make sure you have copied correctly.

Yeah, you're right! your program is running but not my script
Sometimes when you're concentrate on your problem you don't see other things! so, that's only a part of my program, here's a more "complete" part:

   ...
   ... |awk '
    BEGIN {FS=":  " 
    getline expdate <"ExpDate.txt"
    }
    $1 ~ /media ID/ {print "Media Number :\t"$NF}
    $1 ~ /first mount/ {print "first mount :\t"$NF}
    $1 ~ /number of mounts/ { 
      print "number of mounts :\t"$NF
      print "expdate1 :"expdate
      if (expdate ~ "[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]")
      { 
        print "expdate are :"expdate
      }else{
        print "The are no expdate"
      }
    }'

I would always say use nawk instead of awk... it works fine with nawk
Also i don't think you need to use $ symbol to refer the variable.

$ echo "first mount" | nawk '
> BEGIN { FS=": "
> getline expdate <"ExpDate.txt"
> }
> $1 ~ /media ID/ { print "Media Number :\t"NF }
> $1 ~ /first mount/ { print "first mount :\t"NF }
> $1 ~ /number of mounts/ {
> print "number of mounts :\t"NF
> print "expdate1 :"expdate
> if (expdate ~ "[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]")
> {
> print "expdate are :"expdate
> }else{
> print "The are no expdate"
> }
> }'
first mount : 1

It works fine.... I get the output