converting date format

Hi,

I have date written in form of 25.12.2016 in excel cells. I would like to reference to this date in formula, but the formula DATE requires that date is written as =DATE(2016;12;25). So I cannot just link to that cell e.g. =DATE (B1), and would need to somehow convert date format.
Is this possible to do it automatically or over some formula?

I want to count in here
=countifs(E1:E1128;">="&B1;E1:E1128;"<="&B2)

Thanks

Re: converting date format

What do you mean by "formated as short date"?
In column E (from row 1 to row 1128) I have many different dates. I want to count number of cells where dates are between two specific dates. e.g. in column E are dates (12.12.2016; 14.12.2016; 20.12.2016; 21.12.2016) and I need to count number of dates between 12.12.2016 and 20.12.2016.

Since I will have to count for many different periods, that is why I would like to use reference to ranges - hence B1 and B2 (this was mistake in example in first post - it should be B2 in second part of formula (I have corrected it now).
But the formula I have requires date to be in special format ( =date(yyyy;mm;dd) and I have it in different (dd.mm.yyyy) and the formula is not working when I try to enter link to cell with date (B1 and B2).

Re: converting date format

I tried it again, and now it is working. No idea what was wrong last time.
Thanks for your help and effort