clean-dates.pl

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use Date::Parse::Lite;

## See this module: http://search.cpan.org/~gbarr/TimeDate-2.30/lib/Date/Parse.pm

my @user_inputs = (
    '9-14-2016',
    '9 14 2016',
    '9.14.2016',
    '2016/9-14',
    '2016,9-14',
    '2016,9,14',
    '2016/9/14',
    '2016.9.14',
    '2016.14.9',
    '2016.12.9',
    'sep 14-2016',
    's 14-2016',
    'sep142016',
    'september 14, 2016',
    '2016-09-14',
    '2016-9-14',
    '16-9-14',
    'sept14 2016',
    'sep14 2016',
    'sep14.2016',
    'sep14-2016',
    'sep14,2016',
    'sep14',
);

my $parser = Date::Parse::Lite->new();

for my $ui (@user_inputs) {
    $parser->parse($ui);
    if ($parser->parsed()) {
        my $day = $parser->day();
        print STDOUT sprintf("Parsed %-20s  == %d-%d-%d\n", $ui, $parser->year, $parser->month, $parser->day);
    }
    else {
        print STDERR "Unable to parse: $ui\n";
    }
}

__END__