# use map where possible to create hashes where there 
# is a clear relationship between the key and value pairs
my %month_to_num = # hash from map
	map { my $prefix = ($_ < 9) ? "0" : ""; $_ => $prefix . ($_ + 1) } ( 0 .. 11 );

# use fat comma to make code more readable

my %month_to_name = ( 
				 0  => 'Jan',
				 1  => 'Feb',
				 2  => 'Mar',
				 3  => 'Apr',
				 4  => 'May',
				 5  => 'Jun',
				 6  => 'Jul',
				 7  => 'Aug',
				 8  => 'Sep',
				 9  => 'Oct',
				 10 => 'Nov',
				 11 => 'Dec'
			  );

# this subroutine could be made much simpler

sub pad_with_zeroes {
	my ($value, $pad_length) = @_;
	my $pad = "0" x ($pad_length - length($value));
	$pad . $value;
}

# avoid meaningless comments
# --------------------------

# e.g.
#
# Variable declarations
#

# and later
# ---------
# 
# Load the values and do the work

# in my opinion this creates noise and does not aid readability
# Refer to Chapter 7 of Perl Best Practices and use POD