$bday = "8/16/97";
$firstname = "Benjamin";
$lastname = "Biederman";

@DOB = split /\//, $bday;
@month = split //, $DOB[0];
@day = split //, $DOB[1];
$digits_month = @month;
$digits_day = @day;
$temp_month = $DOB[0];
$temp_day = $DOB[1];
if ($digits_month==1) {
	$bday = "0";
	$bday .= $temp_month;
} else {
     $bday = $temp_month;
}
if ($digits_day==1) {
	$bday .= "0";
	$bday .= $temp_day;
} else {
	$bday .= $temp_day;
}
	
@new_username_a = split //, $firstname;
@new_username_b = split //, $lastname;
$login_name = lc $new_username_a[0];
$login_name .= lc $new_username_b[0];
$login_name .= $bday;	

##</code><code>##

$login_name = "$firstname $lastname $bday";
$login_name = s/^(^\C)\s(^\C)\s(^\d{1,2})\/(\d{1,2})\/(\d{1,2})/$1$2$3$4/;  
#notice that to 2 digit bit is not reflected by this regex