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| Hints & Tips - July 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||
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July's Hints and Tips has a quick look at how to type dates in Excel and also using a date in a formula. |
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Typing dates in Excel
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You can type dates in Excel in any way you want to, but to be able to use a date in a formula Excel must recognise the date you type. If you type a date like this: 25/12/2003 or this: 25-12-03, Excel will be able to use it in a formula. If you type a date like this: 25.12.03, Excel will think it is an invalid number with two decimal points and will not be able to work with it. |
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Building a formula between two dates
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When you build a formula using dates, Excel will return the number in days. For example, if you ask Excel to calculate the difference between 1/07/03 and 10/07/03 Excel will give the answer 9 days. Unfortunately instead of showing the number 9, Excel will display 09/01/1900. |
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Excel has output the result in the same format as the rest of the formula, as dates. To change the date 09/01/1900 into the number 9, just select the cell and click the comma style on the formatting toolbar or to to the Format menu, choose Cells and choose Number and then choose OK. |
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