How to keep phone number format as cell values

[gogumakilla]

Hi, I have a applied a phone number format to a grouping of cells, but the cell values still remain as plain numbers without my formatting. I see this because when I click on each cell, it is displayed on my spreadsheet in my desired format (123) 111-1111, but in the function bar, it still shows as 1231111111. How do I keep the formatting on the actual cell values? This is causing problems with my data import into another database, because it is still importing as 1231111111, instead of (123) 111-1111. Sorry for the poor explanation, let me know if you need clarification.

 

[Jambi46n2]

Edited. I misread the post :P

 

[AlanY]

can do it with formula

Excel 2012
	A	B
1	1231111111	(123) 111-1111
Sheet2

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
B1	="("&LEFT(A1,3)&") "&MID(A1,4,3)&"-"&RIGHT(A1,4)

 

[Jambi46n2]

Edited. I misread the post :P