when you use split(date_string, "/")
it gives you different parts of the date: mm, dd, yyyy
no need to "count" until you reach "/"
and to make mm and dd 2 digits, the best way is to concatenate "0" and the one digit, and take the 2 right most bites:
mm = 5
dd = 3
new_mm = right("0" & mm, 2) '...