sub TimeStamp($) # Pass the stamp in as YYYYMMDD
{
  local $_=$_[0];
  if( /(\d{4})(\d{2})(\d{2})/ )
  {  #returns in MMDDYYYY
        "$2/$3/$1";
  }
  else { warn "Invalid input to TimeStamp()" }
}

##</code><code>##

$date_created = TimeStamp($date_created);

##</code><code>##

if ( $date_created = TimeStamp($date_created) eq 'somedate' ) {
    # do something special.
}