European vs american date notations

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul
  • Start date Start date
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Paul

Hi,

I have a strange problem in Excel.
I want to enter a european date 20/09/2004 and convert it
into dd/mmm/yyyy what should display 20 Sep 2004 BUT it
does not it stays like 20/09/2004.
WHen I rewrite the date in 09/20/2004 and convert it does
show 20 Sep 2004.
The cell properties is set to english date and internation
setting is also english. Why cant I enter european dates
into excel..
 
Excel uses your Control Panel date settings to help determine what kind of
an entry you are making. While 20/09/2004 is a valid date under many other
countries' settings it is not with U.S. settings because there is no such
thing as a 20th month. Therefore Excel interprets the entry a text. And
because the entry is text, date formatting has no effect on it.


--
Jim Rech
Excel MVP
| Hi,
|
| I have a strange problem in Excel.
| I want to enter a european date 20/09/2004 and convert it
| into dd/mmm/yyyy what should display 20 Sep 2004 BUT it
| does not it stays like 20/09/2004.
| WHen I rewrite the date in 09/20/2004 and convert it does
| show 20 Sep 2004.
| The cell properties is set to english date and internation
| setting is also english. Why cant I enter european dates
| into excel..
|
|
 
Hi,

I have a strange problem in Excel.
I want to enter a european date 20/09/2004 and convert it
into dd/mmm/yyyy what should display 20 Sep 2004 BUT it
does not it stays like 20/09/2004.
WHen I rewrite the date in 09/20/2004 and convert it does
show 20 Sep 2004.
The cell properties is set to english date and internation
setting is also english. Why cant I enter european dates
into excel..
Click to expand...

The input format is controlled by the Windows Regional settings (In Windows XP
-- Start/Control Panel/Regional and Language Options) and NOT by the cell
formatting within Excel. The latter only controls the display of the input.

20/09/2004 is being interpreted by Excel, in your case, as a text string and
not a date.

The Windows Regional Settings has a variety of "english" settings on the list
(13 in Windows XP). You need to set it to the "english" setting for the
appropriate country in order to allow input in a European Format. Or if you
are using English(United States) you could customize the Date format.


--ron
 
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