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Formatting a date field

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Latest post Mon, Apr 12 2010 5:44 PM by Jim Cone. 1 replies.

  • Mon, Apr 12 2010 11:50 AM

    Formatting a date field

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    I have a spreadsheet that was given to me by the boss.  I am writing a DB around this spreadsheet.  The spreadsheet has a date column.  I format the date column to appear as 09_Jan.  When a cell in this column is selected, the formula field still appears as 1/9/09.  How do I change the formula to appear as 09-Jan as well?  Parts of my DB need to extrat the Jan portion to be used as part of a Unique Identifier.   When I attempt to extract with a mid or a right function, it takes the the actual formula number.
    • Post Points: 21

  • Mon, Apr 12 2010 5:44 PM In reply to

    • Jim Cone
    • Top 10 Contributor
    • Joined on Tue, Jan 15 2008
    • Portland, Oregon - USA
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    Re: Formatting a date field

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    An underscore in a custom number format adds a space the width of the following character.
    Why not use the built- in date format of:  d-mmm;@

    Also, your "dates" could be viewed as text by Excel and therefore the number format would be ignored.
    If the "dates" are left-aligned in the column they are text not dates.

     
    • Post Points: 5
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