Convert Date to STring

  • Thread starter Thread starter tonymaguire
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T

tonymaguire

How do I convert a date (25/11/2005) in a date field to the same string
in a General or Text field? Whenever I try Excel converts to the
serial value of the date.
 
Either format the receiving cell as date or use this formula to move
the date across: =TEXT(A1;"MM/DD/YYYY")
 
Hi!

Not sure what you want to do this for, but.........

When you enter a date in a cell and Excel recognizes it as a date, it
automatically sets that cell format to DATE. The true underlying value of
that cell is the date serial number. So, changing the format to either
GENERAL or TEXT, you end up with the date serial number. (when formatted as
TEXT, then it's a TEXT number)

You could enter the string preceded with an apostrophe: '25/11/2005, but
it's strictly a TEXT entry and can't be used in calculations (easily).

Biff

"tonymaguire" <[email protected]>
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Anne,

I assume that A1 refers to the Cell holding the date.
When I enter the suggested formula I get a result of 1.
 
flummi,

thanks for the input.

I don't want to format the receiving cell as date because the source
cell is formatted as date and that is the problem that I am trying to
solve. I need to achieve the following YYYYMMDD as a text field for
input into a system that does not accept date formats.

Your suggested formula generates an error.

Regards
Tony
 
Biff,

Thanks for response.

Problem is that I have a file with date in date field formatte
DD/MM/YYYY.

I need to convert this to a text format cell YYYYMMDD for input into
system that requires input in text format.
 
Hi Tony,

It's possibly a matter of your date separators.

This is what I tried here (Germany) and as you see it works:

12.05.2006 12.05.2006 =TEXT(A1;"TT.MM.JJJJ")

Try reading the help for the "=TEXT" function to find the valid
separators in your system.

Hans
 
Hans,

Thanks for the clue re separators.

I changed the format to YYYYMMDD.
Then =TEXT(A1;"YYYYMMDD")

That successfully gave me the string in General format, but when I
tried to separate the components using LEFT and RIGHT the cell still
behaved like a date field.

This problem was solved by converting from General To Text.

Thanks for your help.

Tony Maguire
Melbourne Australia
 
How do I convert a date (25/11/2005) in a date field to the same string
in a General or Text field? Whenever I try Excel converts to the
serial value of the date.
Click to expand...

You use the TEXT worksheet function.

eg: =TEXT(A1,"YYYYMMDD")


--ron
 
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