[excel] Excel Date to String conversion

In a cell in Excel sheet I have a Date value like:

01/01/2010 14:30:00

I want to convert that Date to Text and also want the Text to look exactly like Date. So a Date value of 01/01/2010 14:30:00 should look like 01/01/2010 14:30:00 but internally it should be Text.

How can I do that in Excel?

The selected answer did not work for me as Excel was still not converting the text to date. Here is my solution.

Say that in the first column, A, you have data of the type 2016/03/25 21:20:00 but is stored as text. Then in column B write =DATEVALUE(A1) and in column C write =TIMEVALUE(A1).

Then in column D do =B1+C1 to add the numerical formats of the date and time.

Finally, copy the values from D into column E by right clicking in column E and select Paste Special -> Paste as Values.

Highlight the numerical values in column E and change the data type to date - I prefer using a custom date of the form YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.

Here's another option. Use Excel's built in 'Text to Columns' wizard. It's found under the Data tab in Excel 2007.

If you have one column selected, the defaults for file type and delimiters should work, then it prompts you to change the data format of the column. Choosing text forces it to text format, to make sure that it's not stored as a date.

If you are not using programming then do the following (1) select the column (2) right click and select Format Cells (3) Select "Custom" (4) Just Under "Type:" type dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss

I have no idea about the year of publication of the question; it might be old now. So, I expect my answer to be more of a reference for future similar questions after my post.

I don't know if anybody out there has already given an answer similar to the one I am about to give, which might result -I think- being the simplest, most direct and most effective: If someone has already given it, I apologize, but I haven't seen it. Here, my answer using CStr instead of TEXT:

Asuming cell A1 contains a date, and using VBA code:

Dim strDate As String

'Convert to string the value contained in A1 (a date)
strDate = CStr([A1].Value)

You can, thereafter, manipulate it as any ordinary string using string functions (MID, LEFT, RIGHT, LEN, CONCATENATE (&), etc.)

Here is a VBA approach:

Sub change()
    toText Sheets(1).Range("A1:F20")
End Sub

Sub toText(target As Range)
Dim cell As Range
    For Each cell In target
        cell.Value = cell.Text
        cell.NumberFormat = "@"
    Next cell
End Sub

If you are looking for a solution without programming, the Question should be moved to SuperUser.

In some contexts using a ' character beforehand will work, but if you save to CSV and load again this is impossible.

'01/01/2010 14:30:00

In Excel 2010, marg's answer only worked for some of the data I had in my spreadsheet (it was imported). The following solution worked on all data.

Sub change()
    toText Selection
End Sub

Sub toText(target As range)
Dim cell As range
Dim txt As String
    For Each cell In target
        txt = cell.text
        cell.NumberFormat = "@"
        cell.Value2 = txt
    Next cell
End Sub

Couldnt get the TEXT() formula to work

Easiest solution was to copy paste into Notepad and back into Excel with the column set to Text before pasting back

Or you can do the same with a formula like this

=DAY(A2)&"/"&MONTH(A2)&"/"&YEAR(A2)& " "&HOUR(B2)&":"&MINUTE(B2)&":"&SECOND(B2)