Apostrophe in Concatenation

[lisabell]

Hi,
This will probably seem like a very simple query, but I am trying to concatenate 2 columns of excel. One contains dates of birth and the next one contains a single apostrophe. They need to be merged, so that they can be compatible with SQL (the db guy can add them at the front end, but not the back).

So, I write the formula (=H2&I2) in a new column and fill the remainder of the column with the formula and it displays a weird mixture of stuff. Some of the dates are in teh same format, but with no apostrophe, some cells contain a varied mixture of numbers.

Can anyone help me with what I'm doing here please? I would be very grateful.

[malcom]

if u min u need to add apostrophe at the front,
="'"&H2&I2
first apostrophe in excel means that the succeding characters will be recognized as string...
so, typing
'a gives a..
''a(2 apostrophe's) gives 'a

[Brian from Maui]

Hi,
This will probably seem like a very simple query, but I am trying to concatenate 2 columns of excel. One contains dates of birth and the next one contains a single apostrophe. They need to be merged, so that they can be compatible with SQL (the db guy can add them at the front end, but not the back).

So, I write the formula (=H2&I2) in a new column and fill the remainder of the column with the formula and it displays a weird mixture of stuff. Some of the dates are in teh same format, but with no apostrophe, some cells contain a varied mixture of numbers.

Can anyone help me with what I'm doing here please? I would be very grateful.

=TEXT(H2,"DD/MM/YY")&CHAR(39)