How to write dates in a general "dd-mm-yyyy" format without changing number format from "General" to "Date"

[Jyggalag]

Hi all,

I currently have this setup:

Now, when I write 01-09-2022 in cell A1 it automatically detects this as "Date" in the upper right corner as the number format.

However, if I change this to general format, it changes the value "44805" instead. If I then overwrite this to "01-09-2022" it automatically goes back making it into a text format.

I then have to use the formula in column C on all of column B where I type =TEXT(B1;"dd-mm-yyyy") and then I have to copy paste all of column C into column D as a value, which then gives me the result that I want, which is this:

However, this is a rather long and arduous task and I would really prefer to know a shorter path to writing my dates in a General format in the format of "dd-mm-yyyy".

I hope this makes sense and doesn't seem too confusing?

Does anybody know of a solution to this?

Thank you all!

Kind regards,
Jyggalag

 

[Fluff]

Why would you want your dates to be text, it makes things a lot harder. Dates should be left as real dates & not text.

 

[Jyggalag]

Why would you want your dates to be text, it makes things a lot harder. Dates should be left as real dates & not text.

I'm vlookuping from a different file where everything is in text

 

[RoryA]

Either use the TEXT function inside the VLOOKUP, or format the cells as text before you enter the dates in the required format.