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Bryan Hessey
 
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Default Converting Text Values to Dates


The date posted by the OP was either the 10th day of August or the 8th
day of October, or perhaps the 6th of September 1981, and I see nothing
in the OP's posting to indicate which, but I am unaware of the OP's
details except those included in the post

As I commented earlier, I see no date function that can determine
whether 11196 is the 1st of November or the 11th of January, but I
agree that the year appears to be 1996.

As I also said, 10 is not a fair indicator of whether all dates have
two digits for the middle portion.


RagDyeR Wrote:[color=blue]
I agree with you that 6 digits will always work correctly, but ... allow
me
to nit-pick.<g

The 5 digits as posted by the OP as an American format (mdy) will also
*always* work correctly.

The actual criteria of accuracy being that the middle reference *and*
the
ending reference are *2* digits.

Try *any* American 5 digit format with the above criteria and you'll
see
what I mean.

--

Regards,

RD
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"Bryan Hessey"

wrote in message
news:Bryan.Hessey.1y7rva_1131513601.0954@excelforu m-nospam.com...

Whilst I agree that TTC is usually best, it will correctly convert 6
character dates, it seems to have no luck with 5 character dates as
displayed by the OP.

Providing that the middle unit (Months for English dates, Days for
American dates)are entered as 2 digit format (the number '10' is not a
good indicater) then either a formula of

=text(a1,"000000")

and then put through TTC, or


=IF(LEN(A1)=6,LEFT(A1,2)&"/"&MID(A1,3,2)&"/"&MID(A1,5,2),LEFT(A1,1)&"/"&MID(
A1,2,2)&"/"&MID(A1,4,2))
or

=IF(LEN(A1)=6,MID(A1,3,2)&"/"&MID(A1,1,2)&"/"&MID(A1,5,2),MID(A1,2,2)&"/"&MI
D(A1,1,1)&"/"&MID(A1,4,2))

will give an English or American date format.

However, if the middle figure (of DMY or MDY) is a single digit, there
is no way to detect 11196 as being a mid-January or early-November
date
in either system.

Hope this helps (as opposed to adding confusion)


RagDyer Wrote:
TTC is usually the easiest and the best way to convert this type of

text
to
true dates,
*BUT*
In the third page of the wizard, after clicking on "Date",
One must realize that the format to click on,
Is *not* the format you want to display,
BUT the format that the present text is currently in.
You're telling TTC where to convert *from*.

If this choice is not done correctly, either no conversion will be

made
(not
so bad), or a wrong conversion will be made (bad).

After the true dates are established, then they can be custom

formatted
to
the desired display.
--
Regards,

RD



--
Bryan Hessey
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