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Stubborn dates as text and CAN'T FIX

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(@mnadel)
Posts: 1
New Member
Topic starter
 

I tried all the techniques in this document:

https://www.myonlinetraininghub.com/6-ways-to-fix-dates-formatted-as-text-in-excel

Still wont fix my bad dates. Can someone help me please. I attached the spreadsheet

errors.JPG

Thanks

Michael

 
Posted : 04/08/2019 7:12 am
(@sunnykow)
Posts: 1417
Noble Member
 

Hi Michael

Just multiply each date with 1, for example C2*1 etc.

Hope this helps

Sunny

 
Posted : 04/08/2019 11:52 pm
(@fravis)
Posts: 337
Reputable Member
 

I tried this in the sample and it works. However when you copy that new data from column say I to column C and paste it as values, the dates in the cells which now also are behaving 'strange' won't be recognized as dates at first. You have to paste the cell layout from a 'good' cell to these and then everything is fine.

My question is how come this works? And all other efforts don't? It seems like Excel has a kind of memory that's blocking some of these changes?

I like the solution and it is one of the best I found for these kind of problems. But why does Excel it this way?

Frans

 
Posted : 06/08/2019 3:36 pm
(@sunnykow)
Posts: 1417
Noble Member
 

Hi Frans

Those cells you mentioned (with the "stubborn"dates) are formatted as General and not Date so they show numbers instead of dates.

When you copy and paste as values, it doesn't override the format of the target cells.

You will need to format them to Date.

Sunny

 
Posted : 06/08/2019 8:33 pm
(@steveo)
Posts: 26
Eminent Member
 

That is a nice method.  I always learn a lot just by reading the forum.  Everyone is so kind and generous with their knowledge.  I usually do a "text to columns" on the whole range of dates including the sticky dates, changing the column format to dates.  In this example I select the DMY in the drop down, as mine defaults to MDY.

Steve

 
Posted : 07/08/2019 10:05 am
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