How to avoid Excel auto datatype formating

[Aras Kucinskas]

Hi,

When trying to open third party application generated xls file (without data
type information on cells) Excel automatically converts some text values to
date type values. This value begins like locale date format - 2002-05-05.
How to avoid this auto formatting?

Aras

 

[Stefan Hägglund [MSFT]]

Hi Aras!

Select the column and then use the function "Text to columns" function in
Data menu.
Click Next to step 3 of 3
Change Column Data Format to "Text" and press Finish.

Best regards

Stefan Hägglund
Microsoft

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Aras,

This is interesting. Excel will unfalteringly auto-format cells upon entry,
to the disdain of many of us, not later when the file is reopened. There's
no way to turn it off, short of pre-formatting the cells as text, as Stefan
has suggested. But since you're opening the file, you don't have that
option -- there's nothing to pre-format yet. It sounds as if the app that
generated the file actually put a date string in it, and Excel dutifully
pounced on it upon opening the file and changed the formatting to date.
Gotcha! Is this truly a workbook file, or could it be a text file?