Please help. poss VBA

[Clash]

Hi all,

I have been trying to get a unique ID for a number of entries on my spreadsheet, the way I have came up with this is Initial first name, Initial second name, date of birth & initial of gender.

It looks like this L-F-12/10/1966-M, but now the number of entries of the spreadsheet is getting greater and greater daily and it would be nice to automate this feature to save a bit of time.

Is there a way that this can be done, your help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[bgeier]

how is your data laid out?
where should it be going

first name is in cell A1 (First)
Second name is in cell A2 (Second)
Birthdate is in cell A3 99/99/9999
Gender is in cell A4 Gender

a formula such as

= LEFT(N26,1) & LEFT(N27,1) & N28 & LEFT(N29,1)

would give you FS99/99/99G

or if you want the "-"

=LEFT(N26,1) & "-" & LEFT(N27,1) & "-" & N28 & "-" & LEFT(N29,1)

would give you F-S-99/99/9999-G

[paul.robinson@it-tallaght.ie]

Assuming first name is in column A, second name is in column B, date of
birth is in column C and Gender is in column D (as M or F) then in
column E put the formula
=Left(A1,1)&"-"&Left(B1,1)&"-"&C1&"-"&D1

regards
Paul

[Clash]

Thanks both,

but there seems to be another problem.

The date is being shown as five numbers, as if the cell hasn't been formated.

i.e. J-L-29288-M

I have tried to format the cell which the formula is in, but nothing.

[paul.robinson@it-tallaght.ie]

Hi
Try
=Left(A1,1)&"-"&Left(B1,1)&"-"&text(C1,"dd/mm/yy")&"-"&D1

regards
Paul

[Clash]

Paul, you are a star !!

Thanks very much.