Date Format Manipulation

If I input the year as a number in an unformatted cell e.g. '2010', can I refer to that cell data in another cell that is date formatted so that the 'yyyy' format is manipulated to reflect the data '2010' in the unformatted cell?

Or, in other words:
I wish to type '2010' in a cell so that the date in any other date formatted cell is changed to reflect that date without using additional formulae.

Can this be done?

I wish to type '2010' in a cell so that the date in any other date formatted cell is changed to reflect that date without using additional formulae.

Can this be done?

If you only want to enter "2010" in a cell then you will have to use a formula to return that value as the year portion of a date. This formula uses the value of A1 (say, 2010) as the year portion of the date and 1,1 as the month,day. You may format the formula cell to show only the year

=DATE(A1,1,1)

Option 2:
Enter the full date in to A1 and in the cell for which you want to reference A1 use:

=A1

Again, format the cell to "yyyy" to show only year.

Thanks,
It's all rather obvious really. It works fine. I will just have to use a hidden 'helper' cell to refer to the unformatted cell with the 'year' number in.

I was hoping if the actual Date Format could be manipulated without any formula.