I have a pre-populated date field, and have attempted to reformat it to text,
and when I do I get a random number instead of my date.

My date field starts as:
21-Dec-1999
and when I change the FORMAT to TEXT, the content now appears as follows:
36515 (on the left side of the cell)

clearly this field is not staying "exactly as you typed it"

Why is this happening and what can I do?
Thanks!

XL stores the date as a serial number. 36,515 days have passed since Jan 1,
1900. If you want to change your date into text you will need to use a
formula as such

=text(a1, "d mmm yyyy")
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Urs" wrote:

I have a pre-populated date field, and have attempted to reformat it to text,
and when I do I get a random number instead of my date.

My date field starts as:
21-Dec-1999
and when I change the FORMAT to TEXT, the content now appears as follows:
36515 (on the left side of the cell)

clearly this field is not staying "exactly as you typed it"

Why is this happening and what can I do?
Thanks!

Hi,
if you want to convert to text enter the formula as follow

=TEXT(A6,"dd-mmm-yyyy")

in my example your date is in cell A6, change it to fit your needs

if this helps please click yes, thanks

"Urs" wrote:

I have a pre-populated date field, and have attempted to reformat it to text,
and when I do I get a random number instead of my date.

My date field starts as:
21-Dec-1999
and when I change the FORMAT to TEXT, the content now appears as follows:
36515 (on the left side of the cell)

clearly this field is not staying "exactly as you typed it"

Why is this happening and what can I do?
Thanks!

Hi Urs,

from the given information, i do not understand why you want to change the
column to TEXT, as date is showing correctly. pl post what you are wanting
to do with this TEXT, so that suitable solutions can be worked out.

"Urs" wrote:

I have a pre-populated date field, and have attempted to reformat it to text,
and when I do I get a random number instead of my date.

My date field starts as:
21-Dec-1999
and when I change the FORMAT to TEXT, the content now appears as follows:
36515 (on the left side of the cell)

clearly this field is not staying "exactly as you typed it"

Why is this happening and what can I do?
Thanks!