I have a spreadsheet with imported employee data from an ODBC file. The
dates (hire date; birth date) come across as mmddyyyy (i.e. 11151988) instead
of mm/dd/yyyy (11/15/1988). I tried to custom format the cells (using
mm/dd/yyyy) and I get #######. Same result if I format as any of the other
date formats. The pound signs do not signify the column width is too small.
No matter what width, I still get pound signs.

What is the proper way to convert these numbers?
--
MB

Data/ Text to columns/ delimited/ column data format: date: MDY
--
David Biddulph

"MB" wrote in message
...
I have a spreadsheet with imported employee data from an ODBC file. The
dates (hire date; birth date) come across as mmddyyyy (i.e. 11151988)
instead
of mm/dd/yyyy (11/15/1988). I tried to custom format the cells (using
mm/dd/yyyy) and I get #######. Same result if I format as any of the
other
date formats. The pound signs do not signify the column width is too
small.
No matter what width, I still get pound signs.

What is the proper way to convert these numbers?
--
MB

Hello MB,

If you have a column of these, select the column and use

Data Text to Columns Next Next

at step 3 select "date" from "column data format" and "MDY" option

Finish

"MB" wrote:

I have a spreadsheet with imported employee data from an ODBC file. The
dates (hire date; birth date) come across as mmddyyyy (i.e. 11151988) instead
of mm/dd/yyyy (11/15/1988). I tried to custom format the cells (using
mm/dd/yyyy) and I get #######. Same result if I format as any of the other
date formats. The pound signs do not signify the column width is too small.
No matter what width, I still get pound signs.

What is the proper way to convert these numbers?
--
MB