I'm just trying to learn from reading the posts here.

Just like you, I'm wondering what George wants to do with the contents of
cells B2 and down the column. Perhaps if George would tell you, you could
help him better.


"T. Valko" wrote:

Not sure why you're wanting to use DATEVALUE.

If I type this into cell A2:

'1/1/2008

=DATEVALUE(A2) returns 39448.

This will do the same thing: =A2+0

If A2 = a true Excel date and all you want is the date serial number (which
is what DATEVALUE returns) this is easier to use:

=A2

And format as GENERAL or NUMBER



--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"George" wrote in message
...
When I type =A2 in cell C2, I get 01/05/2007 in cell C2, when I put a '
infront of the 01/05/2007 to force it to be text, I still get the #VALOE!
error

Geo

"T. Valko" wrote:

DATEVALUE requires that the argument be a *TEXT* representation of a
date.
If your dates are true Excel dates then they're NUMBERS.

If you want the date serial number:

=A1

Format as GENERAL or NUMBER

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"George" wrote in message
...
I have the following in a spread sheet:
Pay Date
01/05/2007 #VALUE!
01/05/2007 #VALUE!
01/05/2007 #VALUE!
01/11/2007 #VALUE!
the Pay Date is in column A1 and the function is in B2
the function that returns the "#VALUE!" error is "=DATEVALUE(A2)

why do I get an error? I'm using Excel 2003 (11.8146.8132) SP2