Hi Paul, echoing Carol's excellent suggestions. Here are a few resources with some worked examples in case they're helpful:
https://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data-management/splitting-string-variable/
https://blog.stata.com/2015/12/17/a-tour-of-datetime-in-stata-i/
https://www.stata.com/support/faqs/data-management/splitting-string-variable/
https://blog.stata.com/2015/12/17/a-tour-of-datetime-in-stata-i/