Any way to get real dates in data?

Hi, I notice that the dates given by many sources are actually strings like:

"2017|03"

This is making it more challenging to write formulas when looking for certain dates.

Is there any way to get the date to show up as a real date in sheets?

If not maybe this could be fielded as a feature request?

(Writing as a paying customer but without email access to the customer account so writing from my free account)

Thanks :)