Text always switching to date format

B

Brian Haberman

I am trying to store a date as yyyy-mm-dd. I however need this data to be
stored as text or 'general' and NOT convert to a date. I am importing this
data to another system and need the actual data to go in as yyyy-mm-dd and
when Excel converts this to a date it changes the underlying data and always
crashes my import.

Does anybody know how I can achieve this? I also tried to put a ' in front,
however that then gets stored in the data field and does not work either.

Thanks for the help.
Brian
 
B

Brian Haberman

That did it. Wow, I know I had tried that a number of times and Excel was
changing it back on me.

Anyway, thanks for the help.
 
G

Gord Dibben

Try this method.

In a cell enter =TEXT(cellref,"yyyy-mm-dd")

Copy that and Edit>Paste Special(in place)>Values>OK>Esc.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP
 
J

john the confused

Just type in an ' (apostrophe) prior to typing in the date. This saves you
having to format the cell first
--
John
MOS Master Instructor
Please reply & rate any replies you get

Ice Hockey rules (especially the Wightlink Raiders)
 
B

Brian Haberman

John,

As I had mentioned however, when I import this data into another system, I
cannot have that leading apostrophe in the field. I need just the raw data
formated as yyyy-mm-dd.

Thanks however for the tip.

Brian
 
G

Gord Dibben

Brian

Did you look at my post in this thread?

No leading apostrophe needed.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP
 
B

Brian Haberman

Gord,

Sorry it has taken so ling, but I did look at your post and that worked
great as well. That is exactly what I need!

Thanks for all the help.

Regards,
Brian
 
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