Change the written name of a month into its numerical equivalent in Excel

Hello,

Is there a formula in Excel (2010) that will change the written name of a month into its numerical equivalent?

I frequently run across date entries in which the year and day are specified by numbers but the month is specified by a word. For example, the following is from the Date&Time column in a database of recorded events from a webpage:
...
May 20, 2012 7:55:14 PM          >>>          05/20/12
May 20, 2012 2:26:33 PM          >>>          05/20/12
May 20, 2012 9:33:20 AM          >>>          05/20/12
May 19, 2012 9:47:38 AM          >>>          05/19/12
May 18, 2012 11:57:02 PM          >>>          05/18/12
May 18, 2012 11:52:19 PM          >>>          05/18/12
May 18, 2012 12:42:01 PM          >>>          05/18/12
...

The long entries on the left reveal the format of the original data and the familiar 2-slash dates on the right display the desired format with the time discarded.

The following code effects the conversion:

=DATE(
    MID(A1,SEARCH(",",A1)+2,4),
    IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Jan",1,
        IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Feb",2,
        IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Mar",3,
        IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Apr",4,
        IF(LEFT(A1,3)="May",5,
        IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Jun",6,
        IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Jul",7,
        IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Aug",8,
        IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Sep",9,
        IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Oct",10,
        IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Nov",11,
        IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Dec",12)))))))))))),
    MID(A1,SEARCH(" ",A1)+1,SEARCH(",",A1)-1-SEARCH(" ",A1))
    )

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However, it would certainly be a lot simpler and cleaner if there was a single function, etc., for the Month argument.  In fact, for something so common, I anticipate there is (a function) and I have just not yet learned it.  

In if that is not the case however, feel free to copy the following to save in your bag of shortcuts for the next time you need it.

=IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Jan",1,
IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Feb",2,
IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Mar",3,
IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Apr",4,
IF(LEFT(A1,3)="May",5,
IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Jun",6,
IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Jul",7,
IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Aug",8,
IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Sep",9,
IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Oct",10,
IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Nov",11,
IF(LEFT(A1,3)="Dec",12))))))))))))

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Thanks