title: How to convert YYYYMMDDHHMMSS to a date readable by `date`
body: <p>I have a set of date/time strings in the YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format that I want to convert to something readable by the <code>date</code> utility.  Usually, I can do something like:</p>
  
  <p><code>date -d "2010-10-01 12:34:56"</code></p>
  
  <p>However, <code>date</code> does not like the YYYYMMDDHHMMSS:</p>
  
  <p><code>date -d "20100101123456"</code>..invalid date</p>
  
  <p>So, I probably need to refine the string to be in the prior format.  I'm thinking <code>sed</code> is the answer, but it gets ugly very fast.  I'm quite certain my strings will be the proper format, so how do I easily convert them?</p>