There's a few problems with your code:

• Instead of "main::date" try "$date" - you shouldn't need to specify main:: unless you specified a different package.
• You are returning a value (the literal string "main::date"), but thankfully, you're not using it.
• You are splitting on an uninitialised variable ($_), which you would have known if you had warnings turned on. Use $_[0] instead.
• You can change all the splits into one split:

  my ($year, $month, $day, $hour, $min, $sec) = 
      split /[- :]/, $_[0];
  [download]

• You don't need to modify the global - just return the value you need:

  
  my $date = dateconverter($date_begin);
  print $date, "\n";
  
  sub dateconverter {
    my @bits = split /[- :]/, $_[0];
    return join ".", @bits[0,1,2];
  }
  [download]

-- Dan

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.