What is Excel Date Playing At?

I wanted to put a date into a field, but did not want it formatted. In fact it could just represent any 6 digit number; not a date at all.

So I put 050811 (today's date the British way DD MM YY)

And Excel in its infinite wisdom changed it to:

10/02/2039

I despair!

It has done this before, which is why I did not want to put " / / " in the number.

But why would a 6 digit number be formatted and changed to a totally different date?

And how can I turn it off please?

thanks

Try reformatting the cell/column to 'text' - it will then insert of '0' before the other digits and not insert the // in the date. :)

Thanks Irene, that's great!

RealGem said:

Thanks Irene, that's great!

You're welcome RealGem.