use Class::Date;
# .    .    .

  # make sure that whatever date format the vendor chooses to use
  # the one that will come out of this parser conforms to the format
  # specified in the configuration.
  my $date_obj = new Class::Date($data_xml_tag->att('date'));
  $vendor_data{date} = $date_obj->strftime($CONFIG::ORACLE_DATE_FORMAT);

  # . . . later in the code . . .
  my date_f = "TO_DATE('" . $vednor_data{date} . "','" .     $CONFIG::ORACLE_DATE_FORMAT . ")";

  # I then use date_f in my insert SQL statements ...

##</code><code>##

# Under Construction