dates in VLOOKUP

[MBG]

Trying to use Vlookup to copy dates for a series of records (rows) from one
file to another. The result in the placed file (where the formula resides)
is 4 years and 1 day later than in the original/source file (or rather, 4
years with the leap day in included?). Have tried using text version of the
date and it appears in the placed file the same as the source file, but when
I change the format to date, the date increases as above. Both files are
(now) same version of Excel, though source file started out as 97-2003. Any
ideas?

 

[Niek Otten]

Make sure the settings on both computers for Tools>Options>Calculation
tab>1904 Date system are equal.

 

[Dave Peterson]

And if you know that the workbooks have different base dates and you can't
change them, just add/subtract 1462 to your results...

=vlookup(x9,'[Other workbookhere.xls]sheet2!a:b,2,false)+1462

If you were just copy|pasting, you'd have the same trouble...

Saved from a previous post:

One workbook was using a base year of 1900 and the other was using 1904.
(tools|options|calculation tab|1904 date system)

One way to add those four years back is to find an empty cell, put 1462 into
that cell.

Copy that cell.

Select your range that contains the dates.
Edit|PasteSpecial|click Add or subtract (in the operation box) and Values

You may have to reformat the cell as a date.

You may want to do it against a copy...just in case.

Most windows users use 1900 as the base date. Mac users (mostly??) use 1904 as
the base date.

 

[Dave Peterson]

ps. One of the reasons people use the 1904 base date is so that they can show
negative dates/times.