Date Serial VBA Help

[ItalianPlatinum]

Hello - I am looking for some help setting a date so it displays as a number but the number would be 20220208 for today 02/08/22. I have data provided to me that I cannot modify and its given to me with the date in that value. I stumbled on date serial on VBA that seems like a way to solve, but never heard or used it before. I need a way in my vba to set a cell to that value so i can do a comparison. anyone able to help?

 

[fhqwgads]

custom format yyyymmdd

 

[ItalianPlatinum]

custom format yyyymmdd

that doesnt work because that makes the actual number 44600 when the data is 20220208

 

[ItalianPlatinum]

I have a way but i dont like it and has to be a better way either VBA or formula

A1 = TEXT(TODAY(),"YYYYMMDD")
B1 = ""&(A1)
C1= B1 * 1 (used for compare)