Dates in "General" Format

[Denny57]

Format dates as General

I am hoping that there is a method that will allow a list of consecutive dates (an entire Year) to be stored as "General" format in a single column. This detail is to be the VLOOKUP key in a worksheet containing various pre-determined pieces of information.

I have opted to have date information entered into a User Form using 3 separate ComboBoxes (Date, Month & Year) which are then joined using =TEXTJOIN(" ",TRUE,A2,B2,C2) or =TEXTJOIN("/",TRUE,A2,B2,C2) where the target cell requires "General" format. This detail is used to lookup the addditional information

It seems that however I set the format of a cell in the look up worksheet, if the detail looks like a date then excel automatically changes the format and the style.

If I place an apostrophe before the date then VLOOKUP cannot find a match.

Is there a solution or is this a default process

 

[FormR]

which are then joined using =TEXTJOIN(" ",TRUE,A2,B2,C2) or =TEXTJOIN("/",TRUE,A2,B2,C2)

Hi, I'd suggest that you "join" them like this instead =DATE(C2,B2,A2) and then use real dates everywhere rather than text that looks like a date.