Problem with downloading date formats

[DashboardNovice]

I run a report out of a timekeeping system and it gives dates in this format:
6/27/2014

Then I go to a website, copy some data and paste into Excel. After removing non-printing characters the date format appears like this:

07/20/2014 (this appears as left aligned)

On that same website, under a different report, I copy and paste everything into Excel. The date format looks like this:

6/29/2014 (just like the first case)

Why am I getting these different formats? The 2nd example has two digits for the month, while the other cases have only one digit for the month. It is also left aligned. Does this mean it is really a text value? But it shouldn't be because I can still add numbers to the date.

Is there a function that I can apply to make all dates uniform?

 

[Hui]

Dates are stored as Integer Numbers with 1 being 1/1/1900 & today being 41,861
Dates can be displayed using custom number formats in any format you desire.

Unfortunately when copy/pasting data into Excel, Excel does it's best to work out what format the data is in and then applies an appropriate format. But this isn't foolproof.

The best way is to accept it as is and then allow for the variance by either using Text to Column or Formulas to re-interpret the data