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Entering dates
I have my cell format set to Date 14/03/12. However, when I enter a date, Excel entirely changes it. For example, if I enter 010121 (for 1 January 2021) it comes up as 16/09/27. Do I have to enter / ...
- short answer is yes. you could use 1-1-21 if you prefer but otherwise excel just thinks you entered a number 010121. if you want you can convert all your dates to days so entering 44197 would give you 1/1/21 and 44198 will give you 1/2/21, etc...
An additional note:
As mtarler mentioned, Excel stores dates as numbers starting with 1 being 1/1/1900. So, 10121 is the 10121st day since 1/1/1900 (a.k.a. 9/16/1927)
While I understand the desire to have completely unique identifiers for dates, there is no way I'm memorizing the number of days since January 1900. How can I get Excel to show the dates in the format I chose? I'm getting very frustrated!