I am having a problem with Excel's time format. I am trying to log amount of time spent on things. (and i want to be lazy) I try logging the time and excel converts it to a date. I know why it does this, but not how to stop it. I have even tried a custom format so that excel wont convert it, but excel somehow overrides my customization. Im trying to log four minutes and 24 seconds. i have tried doing 00424, 000424, 424, and a few others. I have tried 4:24 and excel changes that to 24:00. like i said, i have tried customization and i have tried pre-made formats, but nothing fixes it. Preferably i'd like to be lazy and just type in 424 and have it converted to 4:24. Any help?
Thanks, Greg
Use two columns, A where you enter values, B where you display them.
In B1 and below put:
=(INT(A1/100)*60+MOD(A1,100))/60/60/24
Then format column B as custom M:SS
Change the formatting of the cell to "Text" .. then type whatever you want: ie "4:24", "424", "0424", etc all work. No fancy formatting, but the data is in. Next, take the next cell and parse/format it (again in text) the way you want: So if you're input is simply "424" (in A1) as you want ... just do a: =concatenate(mid(a1,1,len(a1)-2),":",mid(a1,len(a1)-1,2))
Related
I have a spreadsheet I need to make in Google Sheets. The source of some of the data is exported to an Excel sheet. The data arrives in a dd/mm/yyyy format and I need to display it in a MON d format (Ex Sep 5).
The problem is both excel and sheets look at the date that arrives and think it is mm/dd/yyyy.
For example, 02/08/2022 is believed to be Febuary 8 even though it should be Aug 2. The problem then arises that neither of these platforms end up knowing how to convert this to Aug 2 and I end up having to do this manually.
Does anyone know how to get around this?
I have tried adjusting the format of the date, as well as using DateValue to convert (this fails since it understands the date as mm/dd/yyyy even when it is dd/mm/yyyy).
Any leads would be appreciated!
Thanks!
In Google Sheets, choose File > Settings > Locale and select a locale that uses the dd/mm/yyyy date format, before importing the data. You can then format the date column the way you prefer.
in gs:
=TEXT(REGEXREPLACE(A1&""; "(\d+)\/(\d+)\/(\d+)"; "$1/$1/$3"); "mmm d")
Try the following and format the result to your liking
=INDEX(IF(ISNUMBER(U2:U5),U2:U5,
IF(U2:U5=DATEVALUE("1899-12-30"),,
(MID(U2:U5,4,3)&LEFT(U2:U5,3)&RIGHT(U2:U5,4))*1)))
(Do adjust the formula according to your ranges and locale)
Functions used:
INDEX
IF
DATEVALUE
ISNUMBER
TRUNC
MID
LEFT
RIGHT
Well, for a formulaic solution, if the date is in A1, then the following places the correct date in B1:
=DATEVALUE(TEXT(A1,"DD/MM/YYYY"))
The TEXT function makes a string that will be the same form as your imported string out of the date produced during import. DATEVALUE then gives the proper date you desired.
The trick is in the TEXT step in which you reverse month and day in the string for DATEVALUE.
Naturally, instead of a helper column, it could just be wrapped around any reference to a date from column A, though one would have to remember to do so for all the years the spreadsheet is in use.
If you are importing, not just opening a .CSV file via File|Open and going from there, you have an opportunity to solve all your problems. You use the Ribbon menuing system's Data menu, select the very leftmost thing, Get Data and from the (no arguing THIS isn't a menu) menu that drops down, Legacy Wizards, then finally From Text (Legacy) which will open the old Excel Import Wizard. (You may notice this is very like the Data|Text to Columns Ribbon menu choice and that is because that choice is the old wizard minus the steps at the start that go looking to another file for the data because it knows, by law, that it has to already be in the spreadsheet... in other words, it looks the same because it IS the same.)
Then make selections for the first couple dialogs it presents you to get to the dialog in which you tell it to import columns as whatever: general (let Excel decide), text, date, and do not import. Choose Date and make the selection of DMY to import them properly as you desire them to be so you are never presented with the problem at all.
As you might guess, you can use the abbreviated wizard via the "Text to Columns" feature to do the same thing after import when you see they are reversed. Since it is a single column of data, the result will overwrite the original simplifying your work.
Why does this happen at all? Well, the "locale" folks have the idea. When Excel imports numbers that are in a form it recognizes could be a date, it looks to the operating system settings for the selected ways dates are understood. So if your operating system believes a date should be displayed "Month Day, Year" and Excel has a set of data it thinks fits that mold, it will convert them all using it. So you get those Feb 8's rather than Aug 2's.
Interestingly, it does two other things of note:
It looks at 8, count 'em, 8 rows of data to decide the data fits the pattern. Even with 1,000,000 rows to import, it looks at... 8.
Then it does them ALL as if God himself wrote the "8"... and dates like 25/03/2022 get imported as text not a real date, because they (oh, obviously) can't be dates... "25" can't be a month!
It IS possible to change settings (DEEP settings) to make Excel consider X number of rows in a data set before deciding such things. I found them here, on the internet, once upon a time, though I shouldn't like trying to find them again. It will consider up to a million rows in such an import, but... that'd make it pret-ty slow. And that's a million rows for EACH data column. I won't even say that "adds up" - I'll point out it "multiplies up."
Another technique is to add some number of starting rows to force the desired pattern onto the import. I've heard it works in TIME column imports so it ought to in DATE column imports but I've not verified such.
My bet is you will find the use of the "Text to Columns" feature of most use if you can use a hands-on approach - it does require literal action on your part, but is a fast operation. If you will see others using the spreadsheet though... well, you need a formulaic solution or a VBA one (macro with button for them to have some fun clicking as their reward for doing what they were trained to do instead of complaining to the boss you make bad spreadsheets). For a formulaic solution, the above formula is simple.
Last thought though: there's no error-checking and error-overcoming in it. So a date like "25/03/2022" in the data that imported as literal text is a problem. For handling the latter, an up-to-date approach could be:
=IF(TYPE(A1)=1,DATEVALUE(TEXT(A1,"dd/mm/yyyy")),DATE(INDEX(TEXTSPLIT(A1,"/"),1,3),INDEX(TEXTSPLIT(A1,"/"),1,2),INDEX(TEXTSPLIT(A1,"/"),1,1)))
in which the DATE(etc. portion handles finding text of the "25/03/2022" kind. Lots of less up-to-date ways to split the text Excel would have placed in the column, but since demonstrating what to do if it existed was the point, I took the easy way out. (Tried for a simple version but it wouldn't take INDEX(TEXTSPLIT(A1,"/"),1,{3,2,1}) from me for the input parameters to DATE.) TYPE will give a 1 if Excel imported a datum as a date (number), and a 2 if brought in as text. If empty or strange strings could exist, you'll need to deal with what those present you as well.
So, I have an app, which automatically creates Excel tables. One of the column in those tables is something like a duration for a task. The format of the data looks like this: "1h12min" or "5min".
Now I want to be able to sum up all those numbers and have a total duration of all tasks.
I have tried using custom cell formatting, but I wasn't able to solve the problem that way, mostly because all time formats require a certain input method (like 00:00) and using '#' for the minutes resulted in them stacking up to 100 instead of 60.
I was gonna try an approach where I create one or more extra columns that convert those numbers into time format with the help of stuff like IF and CONTAINS functions, but my attempts are not working out.
Does anyone know of a good way to solve this problem?? Thanks in advance!
So this was my example:
So, cell DK8 contained "9 mins 18 secs".
The result "9.30"
And the function:
IFERROR(IF(ISERR(FIND("sec",DK8,1)),LEFT(DK8,FIND(" ",DK8,1)-1),LEFT(DK8,FIND(" ",DK8,1)-1)+(MID(DK8,FIND(" ",DK8,FIND(" ",DK8,1)+1)+1,FIND(" ",DK8,FIND(" ",DK8,4)+1)-FIND(" ",DK8,FIND(" ",DK8,1)+1)))/60),"")
You will need to edit to suit for hours etc
I am trying to code a date function in Excel using the Month and than the last two digits of the year. So for example I just have the numbers 1-12 in a column. Then I want to code them as follows. 1 is Jan-15, 2 is Feb-15,..June-15. Then 7 is July-14, 8 is Aug-14. However whenever I try to type in those it codes them as their respective month, the day and the year as 2015. I know I have to create a custom format date function, but how would I go about doing that in this case. I have seen some things, but many of times it is unclear. Could Someone help me out.
This link can help you out.
Create a custom date format
If you want to use a format that isn’t in the Type box, you can create your own. The easiest way to do this is to start from a format this is close to what you want.
Select the cells you want to format.
Press CTRL+1.
In the Format Cells box, click the Number tab.
In the Category list, click Date, and then under Type, pick a date format that is close to the format you want.
Go back to the Category list, and pick Custom. Under Type, you’ll see the format code for the date format you picked in step 4. The built-in date format can’t be changed, so don’t worry about messing it up. The changes you make will only apply to the custom format you’re creating.
In the Type box, make the changes you want using code from the table below.
According to the table there and your description I suppose you should use a custom format like:
mmm-yy
33266500,332665100,332665200,332665300 was the original value, cell should look like this: 33266500,332665100,332665200,332665300 but what I see as the cell value in excel is 3.32665E+34
So the question is I want to convert it into the original string. I have found format function on google and I used it like these
format(3.32665E+34,"standard")
giving it as 332,6650,033,266,510,000,000,000
How to parse it or get back the orginal string? I belive format is the function in vba.
Excel has a 15 digit precision limit. If the numbers are already shown like this when you access the file, there is no way to get the number back - you have already lost some digits. VBA code and formulas will not help you.
If this is not the case, you can add a single quote ' mark before the number to store it as text. This will ensure Excel does not try to treat it as a number and thus lose precision.
If you want the value kept exactly, store the data as a string, not as a number. The data type you are using simply doesn't have the ability to do what you are asking it to do.
If you're starting with an Excel file that has already been created then you've already lost the information: Excel has tried to understand what it was given and its best guess has turned out to be wrong. All you can do (if you can't get the source data) is go back to the creator of the Excel file and tell them what's wrong.
If you're starting with, say, a text file that you're importing, then the news is much better:
If you're importing manually using the Text Import Wizard, then at "Step 3 of 3" you need to set "Column Data Format" for the problem field to "Text".
If you're using a macro, you'll need to specify a value for the TextFileColumnDataTypes property that does the same thing. The easiest way to get it right is to use the Macro Recorder.
If you want the four values in the string to be separate cells, then again, look at the Text Import Wizard settings: in Step 1 of 3 you need to set "Delimited" data type (usually the default) and in Step 2 make sure that "Comma" is checked.
The value needs to be entered into the cell as a string. You need to make whatever it is that inserts the value preceed the value with a '.
I have a big .xls file. Some numbers show as a date.
31.08 shows as 31.aug
31.13 shows as 31.13 (that is what i want all columns to be)
When I reformat 31.aug to number it shows as 40768,00
I have found no ways to convert 31.aug to 31.08 as a number. All I am able to do is to reformat 31.aug as d.mm and then it shows as 31.08 and when I try to reformat it from 31.08 to number it shows as 40768,00. No way to cheat Excel using different types of cell formats.
How's your regional settings? There are some Regions where the short date is identified by dd.mm.yyyy. (Estonian, for instance). Maybe if you change the regional settings for US / UK and paste the data again it won't be changed.
Worked in a small test I did here. Hope it helps.
Internally Excel stores Dates as integer. 1 is January 1. 1900. If you entered something that Excel interprets as a date then it will be converted into an integer. I think from this point on there is no way back.
There is an setting in Options on the tab "international" where you can define your decimal separator. If you set this to ".", then your Excel should accept 30.12 as decimal number and not as date.
As pointed out by others, Excel interprets some of your data as a date instead of a number, which depends on your regional settings. To avoid this happening try Tiago's and stema's responses, they will work depending on your regional settings.
To repair your problem in a large file after it has happened without re-entering/re-importing your data, you can use something like
=DAY(B5)+MONTH(B5)/100
to convert a "date" back to a number. Excel will still display it as a date when you first enter this, but when you reformat it as "Number" now it will display the value you originally entered.
Since your column seems to contain a mix between correct numbers and dates, you need to add an if() construct to separate the two cases. If you haven't changed the display format yet (i.e. it still displays 31.Aug) you can use
=IF(LEFT(CELL("format";B7);1)="D";DAY(B7)+MONTH(B7)/100;B7)
which checks if the format is a "D"ate format. If you have already changed the format to Number, but know all your correct data is below 40000, you can use
=IF(B5>40000;DAY(B5)+MONTH(B5)/100;B5)
As suggested above, go to Control Panel - Region and Language - Advanced Settings - Numbers - and change the Decimal Symbol from "," to "."
Good luck!
The data you are pasting, is it by any chance a pivot table.
For example, like you, I am copying a lot of data into a large spreadsheet. The data I am copying is from another sheet and it is a pivot table.
If I paste normally, half will show up as numbers, which they are in the source file and half will show up as dates, for no reason, which drives me insane.
If I Paste->Values however, they will all show up as numbers, and as I don't need the pivot functionality in the destination file this solution is fine.
All you have to do is format cell.
1-right click on the cell where you want to insert the number.
2-then click on Number and select 'General' from the number menu.
Hope this will help future people with the same issue.