Date Format problem

[Mervyn Thomas]

I have a SAGE (UK company) accounts application which exports CSV files
containing dates in DD/MM/YYYY formats. On opening the CSV file with excel
(Office2000) some of the dates in quite a random fashion show as MM/DD/YYYY
which completely throws the reporting. I have asked Sage but wonder if
anyone else has experienced this and whether there is a better way of
formatting the source data so that it is more consistant??

Mervyn

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

I have a SAGE (UK company) accounts application which exports CSV files
containing dates in DD/MM/YYYY formats. On opening the CSV file with excel
(Office2000) some of the dates in quite a random fashion show as MM/DD/YYYY
which completely throws the reporting. I have asked Sage but wonder if
anyone else has experienced this and whether there is a better way of
formatting the source data so that it is more consistant??

Mervyn

One solution is to rename the file from *.csv to *.txt. When you open it in
Excel you should then be presented with the Text-to-Columns wizard (which is in
the Data menu). You will probably want to select "comma" as the delimiter, and
you will have the opportunity to specify the proper date format.

The above can be automated if need be.


--ron