Forum Discussion
Is there a formula to fix this issue
I actually wrote to my bank's Pres. about this: When I download any report from my local bank, the first thing I want to do is sort it by the DATE field. However, their field for DATE is formatted as GENERAL (no specific number format (you'd think a bank would know better)!!! Therefore, 1/27/2023 sorts lower than 1/3/2023 - or - 12/1/2023 sorts lower than 2/1/2023. Is there a formula I can use to pad ZEROS or to change the syntax from 9/9/9999 to 99/99/9999? I imagine the first thing I need to do is to change it to numeric(?) but I'm not successful in doing that.
Select the Date column.
On the Data tab of the ribbon, click Text to Columns.
Select Delimited, then click 'Next >'.
Clear all check boxes for the delimiters (Tab, Comma, etc.), then click 'Next >.
Select MDY from the Date drop-down, then click Finish.
Does that help?
- Thank you SO MUCH! This has been a thorn in my side for years. So grateful for your invaluable help and expertise. What is this process called? In COBOL, we called it "Reference Modification."
I don't think there is a specific name for it in Excel...
