def date_formatter(date_val):
    """
    Auto formats date values (month, day, hour, minute) to two digits.  This is needed for
    proper date formatting by Plotly.
    i.e. the month of March is represented in the database as and integer of 3.  This needs
    to be changed to a string of '03' to be plotted properly.

    :param date_val: Date/time value (month, day, hour, minute, second)
    :type date_val: int
    """
    if date_val < 10:
        date_val = '{}{}'.format('0', str(date_val))
        return date_val
    elif date_val >= 10:
        return str(date_val)
    else:
        print('Improper date value formatting')
        print(date_val)