Stan Brown" wrote in message
t...
Indeed, that works, but why? I thought all dates and times were
stored internally as real numbers.


I thought that as well. I have written many times in these NG's that dates
are just numbers formatted to look like numbers and so far no one has ever
corrected me but I am now having doubts if it is that simple.

I am sure that it was Dave Peterson who once said in answering one of my
posts *Dates are funny*

Certainly they seem to be treated differently by XL to all other entries.
If I enter 39452 in a cell and format it as Accounting I see £39,452.00 in
the cell but still simply 39452 in the formula bar. If I format the cell as
a date I see 5 Jan 2008 in the cell and 05/01/2008 in the formula bar. So I
am not simply seeing in the formula bar the number formatted to look like a
date by the formatting I applied or the number that I enter. It is almost
as if XL has changed the number into a string - well a funny sort of string
anyway - and applied the formatting to that. If this is what is really
being stored in the cell then it explains why the replacement works but XL
must then re-interpret the *string* back into a number whenever a formula
uses it.

As Dave said, "Dates are funny"

--
HTH

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings


Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk


"Stan Brown" wrote in message
t...
Fri, 4 Jan 2008 16:41:32 -0000 from Bob Phillips
:
Just do a global replace on 2007 for 2008.

Indeed, that works, but why? I thought all dates and times were
stored internally as real numbers.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"If there's one thing I know, it's men. I ought to: it's
been my life work." -- Marie Dressler, in /Dinner at Eight/