Why does the change change to a number?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Access Joe
  • Start date Start date
A

Access Joe

Hi all,

I've noticed something wierd and always wondered WHY it happens. When you
type a date into a cell, and then change the Formatting of it to a 'general'
cell, it turns into a number. How does it come up with that number? What is
the significance?

i.e. type today's date of "12/7/2007" - change it to a 'General' format, and
it then says "39423".

I'm a trainer of Excel and this question always comes up. I'm curious
myself too. Thanks!

Joe
 
It's the number of days since January zero 1900 using Excel default for
windows (Mac uses 1904), they copied that including the leap year bug from
Lotus when Lotus was the main contender in spreadsheets.


--


Regards,


Peo Sjoblom
 
And that will explain why =A2-A1 will give the number of days between two
dates
 
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