I have a question,

Sometimes when we import data from a comma separated file it will take
a date field, say 8/24/06 and display it in a scientific format - like
3.90E+04. Why does it do this? Is there a way to add a spreadsheet
function to reformat a column after the import takes place to get it
back to a date format? Or I think it's done it when the field is
082406 or 08-24-06. Or it could be 2007-01-09 or 2007/01/09, etc.

I think it does this even if you have predefined the column as "text"
or "general" or even "date".

I guess I have a hard time understanding why excel tries to outsmart
me and how I can outsmart it instead.

Thanks for any suggestions.
ga

George Applegate