I have a requirement to dynamically create the title for my list by concatenating the current date (formatted

yyMMdd) with 2 form field values (one single line of text, and the other choice), with dashes between them (example 171020-Triple A Transport-Transportation).  I can do this is in the workflow, and then set the title field with an update item control, but there is also a requirement to not allow duplicate items, so I need to validate uniqueness on form submission.  I have created variables for each of my 3 values, and attempted to concatenate them in a calculated value control, connected to the title.  The formula fails (#Value!) as soon as I populate one of the 2 fields with a value.   I think it might be because I am using a date value, (although I have created all of my variables with string type), and it is seeing the dashes as math operators.  But there is no ToText function to convert it from date to text.  I also tried putting my dashes in double quotes, and that broke the formula, so the form wouldn't load.

I have exhausted my knowledge regarding how to make this happen, and would appreciate any assistance I can get from the community. Screenshots of everything are attached.