"Patrick Bateman" wrote in
message ...
Hi all,

I have two problems with the format of two different columns of dates i
have
coppied onto an excel sheet. I need to be able to have the dates in a
standard date format in order to be able to work with them. The problems
are
as follows:

1)The first column of dates are written as numbers with no dividers, eg.
05/10/07 is written as 51007. Is there any easy way to just format this as
a
date? Or will i just have to use a formula to convert it?

2)The second column of dates look like they're in date format - eg.
26/10/2007 but dont seem to be in a numerical date format as i am unable
to
change the format of how the date is displayed or change it to a number??

any ideas would be much appreciated

thankyou

patrick


The numbers such as 51007 are just numbers, not dates, so you will have to
use a formula to convert them.

The ones in your second question are probably text. In this case, use
Data Text to Columns (and just go with the defaults)
to convert them.