Question on formatting dates as text in excel - excel

I have two sets of data. One has dates in the format Jan 10, 2020 which is stored as text. The other format is dd/mm/yyyy and is not text.
I'm trying to check if the dates are equal but I can't get it to work.
I've removed the , in the text stored date. I've tried using the Datevalue function but it just returns #value. The date function also doesn't work...
Any help appreciated.
Thanks.

Not all text strings are suitable for DateValue(). It works best when the day, month and year representation are in the order that your regional settings expect. If you are on UK settings, then you want DMY order, but the date text is in MDY order.
Therefore, you need to transform the text string into something that Datevalue() can process, for example
=DATEVALUE(MID(A1,5,FIND(",",A1)-5)&"-"&LEFT(A1,3)&"-"&RIGHT(A1,4))
This formula works for one- or two-digit days.
Format the result as date and use it for your comparison.

Related

Change date in excel

I am trying to change the date format of my cells in excel to another date format. Currently it is in this format: apr, 10, 2017 01:58:24 PM. I would like to have it in a normal format like dd-mm-yyyy without the time, but I can not get it to work with the formatting in excel.
Thanks in advance,
Kester
You could use this:
=(MID(A2,FIND(",",A2)+2,FIND(",",SUBSTITUTE(A2,",","#",1))-FIND(",",A2)-2)&"-"&LEFT(A2,FIND(",",A2)-1)&"-"&MID(A2,FIND(",",SUBSTITUTE(A2,",","#",1))+2,LEN(A2)))*1
Which is basically a bit of string manipulation (and some substitution of , to # to help) to put it in the generic format 'd-m-y h:m:s t', which excel understands, then multiply the string by 1 to force into a number (in this case 42835.58222); which you only have to format as date (important!):
Edit: Per comments, the first comma doesn't actually exist, so the revised formula:
=(MID(A2,FIND(" ",A2)+1,FIND(",",A2)-FIND(" ",A2)-1)&"-"&LEFT(A2,FIND(" ",A2)-1)&"-"&MID(A2,FIND(",",A2)+2,LEN(A2)))*1
With data in A1, in B1 enter:
=DATE(MID(A1,10,4),MATCH(LEFT(A1,3),{"jan","feb","mar","apr","may","jun","jul","aug","sep","oct","nov","dec"},0),MID(A1,6,2))
and apply desired formatting:
(this results in a genuine Excel date that can be used in sorts, calculations, etc.)(this assumes that the day field is always two digits)(if your month list is in a language other than English, edit the month list)

Convert General to Date in Excel

I have a date field where the format is (example) 20170101.
When I try to convert this field to short date, it comes up as "###".
I need the date in the format of 1/1/2017.
Can someone help?
Thanks!
The data is not a date but a number and by simply changing the format will try to return a date that is 20,170,101 days from 1/1/1900. And Excel stops recognizing dates after 12/31/9999. This would be well beyond that, roughly 45 thousand years beyond that.
you can use a helper column with the following formula:
=--REPLACE(REPLACE(A1,7,0,"/"),5,0,"/")
Format it as desired.
Then you can copy paste just the value over the original.

How to reverse number orders in Excel to formate a date?

I'm searching without success for solution to this problem, as mentioned in title.
The following:
I have many cells with numbers, like: 20170510
This is actually a date: 10th of May 2017
Now my question, how can I bring this number in the proper form to build the right date like: 05/10/2017? So that Excel recognizes it as a date.
Any help would be really appreciated.
Assuming your date string is in A2, then try this...
=DATE(LEFT(A2,4),MID(A2,5,2),RIGHT(A2,2))
For a column of such numbers choose Text to Columns with Tab as delimiter and Date format YMD.
A much simpler formula for you to try,
=TEXT(TEXT(A1,"0000-00-00"),"mm/dd/yyyy")
The advantage of this formula is, you can change the mm/dd/yyyy format to any other format of your choice and it would work.
dd-mmm-yy , dd/mm/yyyy etc...

Using weeknum on date and time text results with #VALUE

So my friend has this template he got from his boss, it's got a bunch of dates and times and other data. He told me he created a new workbook and copied everything from the template to this new workbook and then he modified the dates. The date and time listing he copied from another file.
So this is where the problem occurs, when he's done copying, one entire column resulted with #VALUE! instead of expected result w/c would be in yy/ww format. The formula is written below:
=MID(N2,9,2)&"/"&IF(LEN(WEEKNUM(N2,1))=1,"0"&(WEEKNUM(N2,1)),(WEEKNUM(N2,1)))
Inside N2 is 26/08/2014 1:27 PM. So I googled a bit and found out that WEEKNUM doesn't work for text-style date and time. Should only work with serial numbers, if I understand it correct. I checked the N column (which was all copied from another file) and they were all in text. But when I checked the template, the dates were also all in text style. So how the formula worked with the template but not with the new workbook? (I'm assuming that every text in every cell is aligned to the left, dates in both new workbook and the template are both aligned to the left.)
I told my friend that the N column should be in date format so I suggested him this formula:
=(DATE(2014,8,26) + TIME(13,27,0))
And finally it worked. But his and my concern would be that we can no longer just copy and paste the dates but manually input every date within the formula. But there's just too many dates and it would take a long time to finish.
Any way around this?
UPDATE:
I just noticed something. The format of the dates copied is dd/mm/yyy h:mm AM/PM. When I checked on the column where all the #VALUE!s are spawning, there are exceptions. I actually found 3-4 cells that are normal.
The date is: 02/10/2014 3:49 PM and the result with using the formula is 15/49. I'm wondering, could it have been with how the dates are typed in? Or rather copied in? Like, should the date format be in mm/dd/yyyy instead of dd/mm/yyyy?
Used evaluate formula and it said that N2 contains a constant.
The WEEKNUM function works with dates as text while it can implicitly convert the text to date. Example:
Input '31/03/2015in A1 and =WEEKNUM(A1) in B1. Input '03/31/2015 in A2 and =WEEKNUM(A2) in B2. Note the leading ' before the dates. They will convert the inputs to text. One of them will work, one will not. This will indicate which is your default date format dd/mm/yyyy or mm/dd/yyyy.
You say both Excel are English but there is a difference in default date format between GB English and US English unfortunately.
So if the dates are text in dd/mm/yyyy format and your default date format is mm/dd/yyyy, you can't simply copy them into your Excel and work with them. You have to change them ever to mm/dd/yyyy first. Ever, because even the values which seems to work are mostly wrong. WEEKNUM with the text 09/11/2015 will work even with default date format mm/dd/yyyy. But it will implicitly convert the text to September 11. 2015 while with dd/mm/yyyy 09. November 2015 was meant.
Best solution ist not to use dates in text format. If your friend's boss had used date values instead of text then copy&paste would work. But because he had not, you have to convert the formats in a helper column now. Try
=MID(N2,4,2)&"/"&LEFT(N2,2)&"/"&MID(N2,7,999)
copied down in a helper column.

Convert number to YYYYMM

I have following numbers, which actually represent dates in the YYYYMM format:
201301
201302
201303
...
When I try to format the cells to date fields, Excel always overwrites the original dates and creates some crazy dates, that have nothing in common with the actual ones.
How can I bring Excel to convert it properly?
Excel (by default) uses the 1900 date system. This simply means that the date 1 Jan 1900 has a true numeric value of 1, 2 Jan 1900 has a value of 2 etc. These values are called "serial values" in Excel and it is these serial values that allows us to use dates in calculations. which was discussed here.
So that explains why your data reflects a different date when you try to format is as Date.
What you need to do then is to transform it into a complete readable date format Excel recognize.
As is, Excel will use its default Serial Value conversion.
If you have your data in starting in A1, enter this in B1.
=DATEVALUE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,LEFT(A1,4),LEFT(A1,4)&"-")&"-01")
Above formula will then create a valid Date that Excel can interpret and read correctly.
Result will be:
41275
41306
41334
When you format it as Date, it will equate to the 1st day of every month.
1/1/2013
2/1/2013
3/1/2013
You can just fix the formatting using Custom Format to get YYYYMM as seen below:
If your range is small enough (in the example all 2013) then no formula is required. Replace 13 with 13-, apply Text to Columns with Tab as the delimiter and at Step 3 choose Date and YMD.
You can use the DATE and LEFT/RIGHT functions.
Assuming that format is consistent (i.e. 4 characters for year, 2 characters for month), to convert cell A1:
=DATE(LEFT(A1,4), RIGHT(A1,2), 1)
This will assume the first day of the month for the date (I assume that's irrelevant for you). You can then format the cell as you want.
Can you use formula in Excel to solve this..
A sample formula is given below
=DATE(MID(CELLID,1,4),MID(CELLID,5,2), 1)

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