Using Partial Dates

[Guest]

I am trying to setup a membership database for our church. A lot of people
did not provide their year of birth or wedding anniversary. When I import the
Excel file into Access the date automatically inserts 2004 as the year. Is
there any way around this? I am using Access 2000. I would need to be able to
sort on the data in the field to produce birthday and anniversary lists.

 

[Rick B]

You could import the month and day into two separate fields and not use the
year. You could also add a default year (maybe 1900?) in the Excel file
before importing.

Rick B

 

[Mike Painter]

The dates in excell are probably text fields with a mmdd format.
Access automatically assumes that you want the current year if you leave it
off.

Since you don't care about the year for birthdays and anniversaries there is
no harm done in leaving it as 2004.
Use a date format and enter the correct date for new people and update the
year for old members as time allows.
Sorting will be easier and you will be able to calculate the age of the
people or how long they have been married for future reference.

You will need to format the date in a query to ask "Who 's birthday is it
this month?"