Ok , but i've followed the add-in suggestion, and i still cant get the
formula to work. I have about 8000 pre-existing records that i need to
sort by date.
the data was entered over about a decade by countless people. the date
formats are generally in these two formats:
22 December 1842
or
12/22/1842
(about half the dates are the first way, and about half the 2nd way)

When i try the xdate dealio, it prompts separate boxes for each field (yr,
mo, dy). But I just have a single cell to select, which says (for example)
1/4/1843.

Did i miss the big message - that you can not take an existing date
(1/4/1843) and get it to sort? Period? Do i have to dissect it first into 3
separate fields? ohhhhh... whats up with that???