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Excel date Format problem

1K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Rollin_Again 
#1 ·
I am perplexed. I have an Excel spreadsheet that contains 3 columns with dates. However when I see the spreadsheet the values do not appear as dates but as decimals - for example 39302.4652777778 . However, when I click and look in the formula bar - the date appears formatted correctly - 8/8/2007 11:10:00 AM. I tried to format the columns, pasting values in a new columns and even re-entering a date itself and still get the decimal even though the formula cell indicate that it is indeed a date. Can anyone help me?

Thanks in advance
 
#2 ·
You're displaying the "date math" version of the date. To fix your problem, format the cell and pick a different date format -- it should display in the new format.

If you want to recreate the problem, type in a valid date in a blank cell and then reformat the cell as general...you'll see the julian date value.
 
#4 ·
No - That is not the problem. I did format the cell(s) a number of times and had a support person try to figure it out as well. No matter how different ways I tried it still renders as a decimal. :confused: See the attached file for a glimpse at what I am talking about.

lika2know said:
You're displaying the "date math" version of the date. To fix your problem, format the cell and pick a different date format -- it should display in the new format.

If you want to recreate the problem, type in a valid date in a blank cell and then reformat the cell as general...you'll see the julian date value.
 

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#5 ·
Is the data that is not showing up correctly imported from another application or copied and pasted from somewhere else?

Try formatting an unused cell as date format (use a blank cell from another column or a different worksheet in the same workbook)

After formatting this "helper" cell, enter a test value to see if the date appears in the correct format. If the date appears correctly in this cell just right click it and select COPY and then click on your range of unformatted cells and right click and select PASTE SPECIAL and choose FORMAT.

If that doesn't work can you post your workbook?

Regards,
Rollin
 
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