Merge date and time column to compare with a single datetime column

Hi Team,

I have 2 date time values i need to compare to find a match.

The first is split into separate date (column 1) and time (column 2). The second is a combined date and time in a single column.

My thoughts were i need to merge the 2 columns into 1 and then compare it to the datetime column. I did that with:

=CONCATENATE(TEXT(A2,"dd/mm/yyyy")&" "&TEXT(B2,"hh:mm:ss"))

The values look the same format now in the 2 columns i have to compare but i'm not able to match them. I thought maybe it was because my combined column is a formula but even if i copy and paste it as a value and make sure the format cell option on both is the same custom format of "dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss" it still doesnt work.

Thanks Ali, that was a silly oversight on my part

With regards to the format which you can set on a cell/column (right click format cells>custom then your format mask ie. dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) is that basically just the way its viewed and it doesnt actually change the underlying data or data type?

thanks Ali - done!