Converting Excel Date to mySql Date

I read about this trick from
http://blog.mclaughlinsoftware.com/2009/06/16/excel-date-conversion/

The trick is to convert the Excel date to the mySql format using the Text function.

=Text(A1,"yyyymmdd")

I want to keep the original date in the excel sheet, so I created a new column in the table and filled it with the above formula.

Next, I saved the spread sheet and then saved it again as a CSV file.

I removed the column names from the file, copied the column with the formula back to itself as values, and deleted the original date column.

I now have my original Excel file and a copy as a CSV that has the correct date format.

I then imported the CSV file into the mySql table.