in reply to rearranging dates

I would like to rearrange a date from yyyymmdd to dd/mm/yyyy.

If you just see this as a simple string, and forget for a moment that you're dealing with a date, it's easier:

s[(....)(..)(..)][$3/$2/$1];

Juerd # { site => 'juerd.nl', plp_site => 'plp.juerd.nl', do_not_use => 'spamtrap' }