Forum Discussion
Excel formatting in a mixed cell
Assuming your date is in cell A1, use this ="on "&TEXT(A1,"m/d/y")
Because what you're doing is creating a text entry, you need to turn the date into a text and format it. The TEXT function takes care of that, and one of the arguments is the way you want it displayed. The same sort of thing would apply if you were dealing, say, with financial numbers and wanted it to be in dollars and cents.
- JQuinnJul 23, 2020Copper Contributor
Thank you for the offer. However, there's a ton of confidential info in that file, some of which is integral to the that cell. For now, I'll just generate the Index/Match date elsewhere and refer to it in the mixed content cell, using your suggested approach.
Gratefully,
JQuinn
- JQuinnJul 23, 2020Copper Contributor
Thank you. That works.
I just need to figure out how to merge it with the Index-Match formula, so I don;t need to point to an alternate cell for the date.Thanks, again,JQuinn- SergeiBaklanJul 23, 2020Diamond Contributor
Alternatively you may apply to the cell into which INDEX/MATCH returns the date custom format like
Plus is that it still will be a date, not text, with which you may work - compare with our dates, whatever.
- JQuinnJul 23, 2020Copper Contributor
Thank you, Sergei.
That would be an elegant solution. However, I can't seem to apply that format to the cell and get the intended response. It still displays as 'on 44034'. (See capture image.)
Do you know if that formatting is restricted to certain versions of Excel? I'm using Excel 2016.
JQuinn
- mathetesJul 23, 2020Silver Contributor
So long as your spreadsheet doesn't contain private or confidential info, you can post it here so we can work with the actual situation rather than having to reconstruct it from your description.
I think that "all you'd need to do" is nest the INDEX/MATCH function within that TEXT function, assuming that what the INDEX/MATCH is doing is getting the date in question. It's hard to be certain without seeing more directly what you're working with.