hello Dee,

I have entered 02-9098 into A1
came out as: Feb-98
specified date for cell, came out as: 2/1/9098
month(a1)=2
day(a1)=1
year(a1)=9098
giving you your "2" and "9098".
Drop me a note if this does not help.

Gabor

"Dee Sperling" wrote in message
...
I'm imporint data (which I have no control over) into Excel. Some of the
number contain 2 digits, a dash, then 6 more digits, for ex 02-9098 Excel
interprets that number as Feb 1, 9098. Changing the cell format to number
or
text does not get the original value back, instead, I get 2629049 which is
obviously not correct.

Is there a way to undo the date and get the original number back?

Thanks,
Dee Sperling