Change date serial to actual date numbers

Hello,

I'm writing a macro that will take data that is exported from our database and re-organize it in order to re-upload it. Sounds silly, and it is, but it's easier than transferring the data within the database by hand. My main issue is converting the value in the date cells from the date's serial number to the actual date in numbers. For instance, if the database gives me the data 2/12/2012, Excel records this value as the serial 40951. However, I need the value to be yyyymmdd (20120212 in this instance). I know that it can be formatted to "show" this, but I need the actual value in the cell to be this number (which will then be formatted as text). Can anyone help me do this?

Thanks,

Scott

You can use:

=TEXT(A1,"YYYYMMDD")

in a helper cell, copy down as required, fix the values, then copy/paste over the original cell(s) and delete the helper column.

Hope this helps.

Pete

Perfect, thanks! I knew it had to be an easy fix, just couldn't think of what that fix was.