Here is another way to do it (again, assuming CellVal contains the text of
your "quarter date" cell)...

QDate = DateAdd("q", Mid(CellVal, 2, 1) - 1, "1-Jan-" & Right(CellVal, 2))

where I used QDate instead of QuarterDate as the receiving variable because
that name is short enough to allow the entire statement to print on a single
line (without word wrapping) in your news reader.

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"Rick Rothstein" wrote in message
...
Assuming you have assigned the "quarter date" to a variable named CellVal,
this statement will assign the quarter's start date to the indicated
variable...

QuarterDate = CDate("1-" & Choose(Mid(CellVal, 2, 1), _
"Jan-", "Apr-", "Jul-", "Oct-") & Right(CellVal, 2))

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"Hugo" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I am writing writing a subroutine which works with a series of quarterly
dates (e.g. "Q3-08, Q4-08, Q1-09, Q2-09,..." in a single row. I had
wanted
to use CDate in my routine, but I can't get it to work with the date
format I
am using. Any thoughts?
--
Hugo