AshleyJordan:

You can't format STDIN, you can only look at what came in and see if it matches what you want. You can do it something like this:

# Get a line from the user (or file if redirected)
my $line = <STDIN>;
while ($line !~ /regex to check input/) {
    # input didn't match regex, so tell the user and get another line 
+of data
    print "Sorry, I don't understand that, please enter the date like:
+ DD-MM-YYYY\n";
    $line = <STDIN>;
}
... code that uses properly formatted date ...
[download]

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.