Excel uses a sequencial number from either 1/1/1900, or 1/1/1904 (depending
on your options) as the date value
for Example 6/3/2005 is 38506 using the 1/1/1900
if the cell is formatted as a date it is responding with the date it thinks
you mean.
If you want the cell to display a zero
=if(Date=0,"0",date)

"DP NY10601" wrote:

I have a date fiels yyyymmdd which can have a value of 0 or a valid date in
recent past.
Excel displays the 0 date as 01/01/1900 and the non zero dates as expected.

Cant figure this out , any help would be appreciated.