You could...

But maybe it would just be easier to use:
=text(a1,"mmm")
to return that 3 character abbreviation.

But you could use something like:
=left(text(a1,"mmmm dd, yyyy"),3)
To extract characters from the formatted value.




Shams wrote:

Folks,
I have a small problem. Let's say I have January 22, 2004 in one cell. Now
this is set up as a Date format. Is there a way I can convert it into text
so that I can do, for example, a left() function that's going to ask for the
first 3 characters in that cell..i.e. bring back "Jan".

--

Dave Peterson