I have been using the following as a formula array beginning in column R2 for an Excel spreadsheet that combines the data from four columns:
=L2&" "&N2&" "&Q2&" "&P2
Column L contains the date in the following format: 2/23/2015.
The formula used to show the date as shown above, but now for some reason the format has changed to go from 2/23/2015 to 42081.
I can't seem to get date to show as it once did. Also the Excel spreadsheet I apply this to is downloaded from a different source each day so I don't know if default formatting has changed even though the data is exactly the same.
When you concatenate like that you just get the values not the formatting because number formatting doesn't apply in the text string created. You can use TEXT function to dictate the format in this context, e.g.
=TEXT(L2,"m/d/yyyy")&" "&N2&" "&Q2&" "&P2
With MDY convention, if L2 is formatted as Text prior to entry then keying in 2/23/2015 would preserve that display in a formula that concatenates it with other strings. Similarly if not keyed but entered with Ctrl+:.
If L2 is formatted as General or Short Date the date index will be concatenated (42081 in the example above) though the display in L2 will not change.
While a change in formatting may be the most likely explanation (and a solution provided by #barry) another possibility is a change in the date convention from DMY. In which case 2/23/2015 would have displayed and concatenated as that even in a cell formatted as Short Date. 2/12/2015 in that case however would have displayed as such but in the 1900 date system concatenated as 42340 - the date serial number for December 2, not February 12.
Related
I am trying to link two Excel files and compare the values from first one in the second one, but I have a problem at some point.
So the date 28/07/2021 comes from the other file (which is call 3WLA). I had to use the function TEXT(..., "dd/mm/yyyy") otherwise it displays 44405 which is an other form of the date. Now I want to compare this date with other ones but it doesn't work as showed in the pictures below.
The picture shows the comparison of two dates coming from the other excel file 3WLA (still using the function TEXT(..., "dd/mm/yyyy")). We clearly see that there is a problem as it should display TRUE. In the same way, when I compare a date from 3WLA (i.e. using TEXT(..., "dd/mm/yyyy")) with a date random in my file it give me the following
where 28/07/2021 is given by = TEXT('[3WLA.xlsx]Block-First-Fix'!$AM$1,"dd/mm/yyyy") and 29/07/2021 by = 29/07/2021
chris neilsen already gave you the answer in the comments.
To clarify further: The text "29/07/2021" and the date formatted to look like "29/07/2021" are different data types. To help with this MS Excel automatically formats numbers and dates to be aligned to the right and normal text to be aligned to the left
In B1 you can see that the date has been formatted in the same way as per the formula in A2, but since the output in B2 is of the text data type, the two are not considered the same.
You can use the formula DATEVALUE to convert from text to date serial number. (Read more about date serial numbers here).
If your texts with dates are too different from your local settings date formats, DATEVALUE might not give you correct results. In that case use DATE function in combination with some text functions such as LEFT, MID, RIGHT
You can format the cell to make the date more readable using either the number formatting field or the dropdown from the ribbon
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)
I have been searching it for an hour but unfortunately nothing found that actually work. I have an excel sheet with a column having date in it. Current date format is dd.mm.yyyy but I want to change date format to yyyy/mm/dd for entire cell.
OPTION 1)
Assuming that you source date that is in the number format dd.mm.yyyy stored as an excel date serial and only formatted to display as dd.mm.yyyy then the best fix is to select the cells you want to modify. Go to your home tab, and select the number format and change it to General. See Green circles in image below. IF the format is already set to general, or when you switch it to general your numbers do not change, then it is most likely that your date in dd.mm.yyyy format is actually text. and will needed to be converted as per OPTION 2 below. However, if the number does change when you set it to general, select the arrow in the bottom right corner of the number area (see red circle).
After clicking the arrow in the red circle you should see a screen similar to the one below:
Select Custom from the category list on the left, and then in the Type bar enter the format you want which is yyyy/mm/dd.
OPTION 2
=date(Right(A1,4),mid(A1,4,2),left(A1,2))
This assumes your original date is a string stored in A1, and converts the string to a date serial in the form excel stores dates in.1 You can copy this formula down beside you dates. You can then apply cell formatting for the date as described above, or use the build short or long date if that style matches your needs.
1Excel counts the number of days since January 0 1900 for the windows version of excel. I believe mac is 1904 or 1905.
The problem is that your date is a text string, so changing the cell number format won't have any effect.
One method of convert the dates in place to "real" dates is to use the Text to Columns wizard.
Select your date(s).
Select the Text to Columns option on the Data Tools Tab of the Data Ribbon:
At Step 1, select "Fixed Width" then "Next"
Step 2 is irrelevant
At Step 3, for the date column, select DMY as the format. You can also select the "Destination" if you want the results written elsewhere.
Then "Finish".
That's it. Your dates will be converted in place
Since your dates are now "real" Excel dates, you can use the Cell ► Number Format dialog to change the format to whatever you want.
Nothing wrong with your format i.e. yyyy/mm/dd. You can use:
=TEXT(A1,"yyyy/mm/dd")
Update
A comment was made on this question re the TEXT function converting a date-serial to text. It will still be possible to apply date functions to the output of the TEXT function and get an output. E.g. here we can see WEEKDAY returning a result on the value of B1 (which in turn is formatting A1):
You are making this way too complicated. Just use the DATE(year,month,day) function and switch the DAY() and YEAR() inside it.
If in cell A1 you have a European-style date in this format: 12-04-2017; Excel will interpret this as Dec 4, 2017.
Excel will interpret it properly as Apr 12, 2017 if you change it to the American-style of 04-22-2017 by writing this equation in another cell: "=DATE(YEAR(A1),DAY(A1),MONTH(A1))".
(I put the DAY() in the month spot and the MONTH() in the day spot.)
Now you can use any date format you want.
I use 'substitute' to replace the '.' with a '/'.
Then use the date format to get the correct format.
I received excel sheet with dates in column U as (Jul 8, 2009).
I changed cells format to custom date (mmm d, yyyy)
now in column V, I added below if statement
=IF(U9="";"No Date";IF(U9>TODAY();"warranty";"expired"))
my problem is: why all values returned as "warranty" what ever date in column U?
May 10, 2016.....warranty
Jul 8, 2011.........warranty
Jan 1, 2017........warranty
Jul 23, 2011........warranty
You need to turn on the automatic calculation:Options>Formulas>Workbook calculation>Automatic
Or you can turn it on in the formulas tab in the tool bar:
It sounds like the data in the sheet might be wrong - have you checked its value and compared this to the value of today? (use the value function on the cell is probably easiest)
There is a '1904' date setting deep in the bowels of the options (under advanced) which some systems use - whereby the dates started at a different point that Excels usual. This means that today would not match today - and the situation you are describing is possible.
The dates you received might have been formatted as Text. In that case changing the cell format won't convert it to date, and some formulas and expressions will regard it as text and not as a date value.
To verify this try to change the date format on one of the date cells that calculate incorrectly to some other date format or number, and you will see there is no effect.
One solution is to add the DATEVALUE() function to your formula:
=IF(U9="";"No Date";IF(DATEVALUE(U9)>TODAY();"warranty";"expired"))
This will work only if all of your dates are formatted as text.
Another solution is to run Text to Columns from the Data menu. This process has the side-effect of converting data types.
Select your dates column and run Text to Columns.
Choose Delimited and click Next.
Remove any selected Delimiters and click Next.
You may choose General or Date and click Finish.
After that your original formula should work correctly.
Addition:
It seems this is not a typical problem and it might have to do with the machine locale settings and date format recognition.
A possible workaround can be using this formula to retrieve the correct date value from a date text formatted as MMM d, yyyy:
=DATE(RIGHT(U9,4),
MATCH(LEFT(U9,3),
{"Jan","Feb","Mar","April","May","jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"}
,0),
NUMBERVALUE(MID(U9,5,2)))
For easy copy:
DATE(RIGHT(U9,4),MATCH(LEFT(U9,3),{"Jan","Feb","Mar","April","May","jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"},0),NUMBERVALUE(MID(U9,5,2)))
Replace the U9 part of your original formula with this formula.
I have an excel document with about 500 rows.
I need to format all the cells in , let's say, B column from date to text.
This is how it looks like now:
2012-06-15
2012-06-01
2012-06-14
What it looks like when formated to text:
41075
41061
41074
It has come to my understanding that this is a timestamp representing days since 1st januari 1900, right? Anyhow, this is not what I want. I want the value of the field to be exactly what it is but with the column type of text. I've found various solutions for this using functions like this: =TEXT(B1, "yyyy-mm-dd") but that is not reformating the cell, it is extracting a value from one cell, reformat it and represent is as text in another.
The rule I'm after: I want all cells in B column to have the type text without changing the value
Thanks!
If you have a situation where columns A to D are dates of 500 rows you then:
Use the =TEXT(A1, "yyyy-mm-dd") function you describe in cell E1.
Copy this formula 4 columns wide, and 500 rows down.
Then copy and paste values to the preceding cells.
Copy Example:
Output:
You're right, Excel stores dates internally as number of days since January 1st, 1900 (apart from a minor leap year bug).
Thus, I'm afraid you cannot have both:
Either you keep the value e.g. (41075) and simply format it as a date, so it'll be displayed as 2012-06-15 -
Or you convert it to text format - but then you either
Lose the underlying value - if you convert it to the format you wish with a text function as you mentioned
Keep the value (41075), but cannot see the date
If you are typing in the values you can by adding a ' before the values to keep it as text.
e.g.
But depending on the method the third party service uses to import these values this may not work and I bet you will not get around it unless you export it to a text editor and import it again.
Also try to play with diferent types of text for your third party service, e.g. "2012-06-15" as some see the quotes and remove them.