dates automatically formatted wrong

Hi. I'm copying dates and other data from a text file which has them formatted like:
YYYY-MM-DD
and excel reformats them as soon as i copy them into a format like:
dd/mm/yyyy

taking away zeros where they are not needed. is there any way for me to copy and paste the dates and keep them looking exactly the same.
thanks!

got it. gotta use open to open a text file