Thanks David. That works for GetDate() but what happens if you apply the formula to a field in which the date is only present some of the time? When the date is not present the value output into the field is "00". Is there anyway to overcome this. I have tried various functions, e.g.IsEmptyString(datefield) - with and without ToString(datefield) - Iif(datefield IS NULL, Iif(Length (datefield) = 0 , etc. etc,. and nothing gets parsed.