Formatting a date value using double quotes

[xlhelppls]

Hello - I am trying to figure out the following scenario:
in Col H I have a date field and it has to be in this format -- "YYYY-MM-DD" - yes, surrounded by double quotes.
If I try to format the cell as a custom using "YYYY-MM-DD" when a user types in 2021-04-01, then I get this as the results in the cell -- YYYY-MM-DD (assume it is because I have the dbl quotes around it).
If I remove the dbl quotes in the format cells, then I just get 2021-04-01 without the double quotes.

is there a way to 'force' dbl quotes when using format fields?
Or is there some other option - like conditional formatting - where if the user doesn't enter it in the format of "YYYY-MM-DD" that I can highlight in red and pop a msg for them to know how it should be formatted? I started to try and do that in conditional formatting but again I am getting hosed by the dbl quotes

thanks in advance!

 

[Teeroy]

I'm not sure why you need the quotation marks, but if it's purely visual you can use standard dates instead and display them with the double-quotes.

Use a custom format on the date cell: \"yyyy-mm-dd\"

 

[xlhelppls]

I'm not sure why you need the quotation marks, but if it's purely visual you can use standard dates instead and display them with the double-quotes.

Use a custom format on the date cell: \"yyyy-mm-dd\"

Thanks so much, Teeroy. That did it!