my $in_date = '11-24-2007'; # or 11/24/2007, or 11.24.2007, or any non-digit-separators
my @parts = split /\D/, $in_date;
my $db_date = join '-', @parts[2, 0, 1];

# to get the original format:
my $sep = '-';
my @parts = split $sep, $db_date;
my $pr_date = join $sep, @parts[1, 2, 0];
print "in: $in_date; db: $db_date; pr: $pr_date\n";
# in: 11-24-2007; db: 2007-11-24; pr: 11-24-2007