$date = '05-02-2003';
my($d,$m,$y) = $date =~ /(\d+)-(\d+)-(\d+)/;

##</code><code>##

use Time::Local;
my $time = timegm(0, 0, 0, $d, $m-1, $y);

##</code><code>##

print scalar gmtime($time);

##</code><code>##

Wed Feb  5 00:00:00 2003