Negative date problems, and working with a leading 0 in cell

[Kalabalana]

Hello, I have a cell which needs to contain a leading 0, the cel
contains a date in the mmddyyyy format. I need to perform som
calculations in other cells using this cell's information
Unfortunately when I change the cell format to a custom one o
"mmddyyyy" my date becomes a negative value and the cell is filled wit
#'s. I've tried changing the date system to the 1904 system, but n
change came. The dates I am using are all recent within 6 years, s
it's not an issue of the date existing before 1900 or 1904.
Essentially the problem is that I need to have the leading 0 AND b
able to treat this cell as a number.
Thanks for any help

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Changing format won't change a cell's value, so you're not seeing
negative numbers. Instead, I'd guess that you need to widen your columns
to display the full date.