If you merely wish to display the number 20071101 as 2007-11-01, you can use
the custom format 0000-00-00, or if you want to turn it into text in that
format you can use =TEXT(A1,"0000-00-00")
If you want to convert it to an Excel date for calculations, you could use
the formula =DATE(LEFT(A1,4),MID(A1,5,2),RIGHT(A1,2)), and format the result
as yyyy-mm-dd
--
David Biddulph

"spreadsheet monkey" wrote in
message ...
I am trying to convert a column of dates that come in the format "20071101"
into
"2007-11-01" in an automated fashion (if possible in a formula since I
will
include it in another one)

problem, the data is imported which means that is comes in "general"
format
and needs to be in either "text" or "number" format for me to use any of
the
functions like VALUE... how can I change to entire coulmn with a function
so
that it converts the data to correct format? (without using TEXT TO
COLUMS)

thx