How do I delete merged cells in Excel without deleting the final d

[aries68mc]

I have a column of dates that was formatted YY/MM/DD that I wanted formatted
MM/DD/YY. I split the cells then recombined the 3 new columns into a 4th
using the concatenate function. How do I delete the 3 columns without
deleting the combined data in the 4th?

Thanks,
Mary

 

[Dave Peterson]

First, if the data were really dates, you should be able to just format the
cells the way you want.

But if it's text that looks like data, you did ok!

You can either hide the original columns and keep the concatenation formula

--or convert the column of formulas to values (edit|copy, edit|paste special
values will do it). Then delete the other columns.

Just curious, did you use a formula like:
=date(2000+a1,b1,c1)
to get a real date
or did you just create another string that looks like a date?

 

[Gord Dibben]

Select 4th column and Copy>Edit>Paste Special(in place)>Values>OK>Esc.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[FSt1]

hi
copy the condatenation function and paste special values. this turns the
function into hard data. the other three columns are now no longer needed.

Regards
FSt1

 

[aries68mc]

For some reason when I tried the paste special values originally, it didn't
work in formatting the dates how I wanted, but a regular copy and paste did.
I just did what Dave suggested, though, and got it to work.

Thanks for your reply,
Mary

 

[aries68mc]

Thanks. The file I'm working on was pulled from our HRIS system and was
converted as text. I don't know why IT gave it to me that way, but they did.
And I didn't want to wait on them for another file.

I was able to get it to work with doing the copy/paste special. For some
reason that didn't work when I originally did the concatenate function.

Thanks for your help!
Mary