Thanks Dave but how do I then take these dates from 3 columns and put back
into one column in the mm/dd/yyyy format?

BTW - this DID work and it was also answer to another problem I had been
having because sometimes I have to merge different spread sheets and some
were typed in 3 columns (mo, day, year) and others in one column in
mm/dd/yyyy format -- so now I can use your answer here for converting that
too for the sorts. Double thanks and hopefully you or someone can tell me
how to get back to the single column date format.

Judy M.

"Dave O" wrote:

I can provide a chunky workaround, until someone provides a better
answer:

Assuming your 5 sample dates are in cells A1 ~ A5, and that single
digit months and days are always expressed with a leading zero:

In cell B1, enter this formula:
=VALUE(MID(A1,1,2))

In C1, enter this formula:
=VALUE(MID(A1,4,2))

In D1, enter this formula:
=VALUE(RIGHT(A1,4))

Copy those formulas to the remaining rows.

These formulas parse the original text string and convert them to
numbers. You can then highlight the rows and perform a multiple sort
on columns D, then B, then C. Chunky, but it works.