dates sorting erroneously

mozo

New Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2002
Messages
13
Hi - I am once again experiencing a strange problem in that a column of dates (formatted as dates) are not sorting properly. Months are grouped together, but 5/4/01 is coming AFTER 5/31/01, for example. I notice that when I try to change the format of the date to a format with leading zeros (i.e., 01/01/2001), the cells don't actually change.
Am I doing something wrong here?

THanks
 

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Is it possible that 5/4/01 is really "5/4/01" (i.e., Text)?
This message was edited by Mark W. on 2002-08-21 08:07
 
Upvote 0
No. The best way to tell is use the ISTEXT() worksheet function....

=ISTEXT(ref)

...where ref is the cell containing your supposed date value
 
Upvote 0
Ah, ok..thanks. But then if they are indeed text, how do I covert them to dates? The regular Format cells-> date doesn't seem to be working.
 
Upvote 0
Excel formatting never alters the value stored in a cell. You must either apply the proper date format and re-edit the cells or if you have a lot of such cells use the Edit | Text to Columns... menu command.
This message was edited by Mark W. on 2002-08-21 09:28
 
Upvote 0
hm ok..yes, there are many cells with dates. i can't seem to find the edit-text to columns command...using excel xp, btw


thanks again
 
Upvote 0
Got it -- thank you!! This was a real eye-opener; I always thought that when I used FORMAT CELLS that I was actually changing the stored data.
 
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