Hello,

We need to import a large number of spreadsheets with suspect data. Some
very involved database structures have been developed to translate the
received data. Dates represent a large part of this questionable data. The
process assumes dates are poorly formed and the poorly formed string is
ultimately used as a lookup value.

The problem is, when these spreadsheets are read in via OleDB, the
String "Sep-05" returns as 9/1/2005. Now I understand that for many (if not
most) applications, this translation is desired, but in this case the desired
value to be retrieved from the cell is, exactly, "Sep-05". Nothing we have
tried so far suppresses this 'help' from Excel.

Is there a way to get the actual value and not the one Excel thinks we
want?