Problems changing date format of date as string

Question

I am currently trying to convert yyyymmdd type of date to a ddmmyyy format.

• I've tried using DATE function and something like this:

  =DATE(LEFT(A3;4);MID(A3;5;3);RIGHT(A3;7))

  Original date for this function is 20120401 but the formula returns: 16.12.2104.

• I've tried using functions YEAR, MONTH and DAY instead of LEFT, MID and RIGHT but that's not the right way.

• I also tried using DATEVALUE but since Excel probably doesn't recognize yyyymmdd as a date, it gives me a #VALUE! error.

• I've found a couple of solutions for SQL but it isn't my strong side yet - and this should be achievable easily in Excel.

Is there a way to do this in Excel?

Answer 1

Applying =DATE(LEFT(A3;4);MID(A3;5;3);RIGHT(A3;7)) to 20120401 in A3 is effectively to reassemble the component characters as below on the left:

These effectively become converted as on the right.

The solution was simply to exclude the digits highlighted red with:
=DATE(LEFT(A3;4);MID(A3;5;2);RIGHT(A3;2)) but the locale might have been a factor and when dealing with date serial numbers and/or what appears to be a date but is a string various other issues might have been involved.

Answer 2

Consider:

=DATE(LEFT(A1,4),MID(A1,5,2),RIGHT(A1,2))