I've been tasked with exporting record metadata from a documentum repo using DQMan.
However, I frequently encounter issues with date formats. They output in DQMan in "dd/mm/yyyy hh:ss" format, but when 'Exporting to Excel' the dates seem to output in "mm/dd/yyyy hh:ss", while my Excel is setup for "dd/mm/yyyy", and so the dates are either interpreted incorrectly or as text.
Edit: I have tried to establish the precise series of events, and I reckon the issue must be how DQMan is exporting into Excel. It must be telling Excel to expect a certain type of format but sending it something else.
SYSTEM
OPERATION
DATABASE
Stores 'DateValue' for Record Date Attributes; displays as local user date format.
DQMAN
Queries repo with DQL criteria and reports 'DateValue'; Reports in the default format for the windows user (UK Format for us!).
DQMAN
Runs 'Export to Excel' Function.
DQMAN
Sends delimited text data to Excel (unsure how this part works or is formatted) .
EXCEL
Excel is being told that this is a US DateValue, but raw text sent to Excel in UK format as it appears in DQMan, as per windows settings. (?)
EXCEL
Testing Value to determine datatype… "Is this string a DateValue?"
EXCEL
DateValue of 2015-12-21: Tests "21/12/2015 05:00:00"… NOT A US DATE
EXCEL
DateValue of 2014-08-08, Tests "08/08/2014 05:00:00"… IS A US DATE
EXCEL
DateValue of 2014-01-06, Tests "06/01/2014 05:00:00"… IS A US DATE
EXCEL
If the value is evaluated as NOT A US DATE , the value is added to Excel as plain text.
EXCEL
If the value is evaluated as IS A US DATE , the US format text string is added to Excel as a UK DateValue; this gives the wrong value.
I'm not sure if dqMan uses dfc.properties but if it is, you can use dfc.date_format parameter to adjust date to something that suits you more (ref)
However, that won't help you with exported date format. Maybe exporting to CSV as middle step?
Related
Thanks for checking.
I exported a DUMP from JDE(JD Edwards enterprise Resourse Planning Application) to an excel file. i intend importing the excel file to MS SQL Server so that each departments can run a report from my application which i will then export as an excel file.
But the issue i am having is that the date in my imported excel file is not in the same format. some are strings while some are date although they look like a valid date. the same applies to the field containing the total amount for each transaction. So when i try to import to MS SQL all the data that are not in date format are replaced with null.
Please does any have an idea of how i can make all the values in the date column to have the same data type. i have tried using the following suggestions but haven't gotten a result yet.
=DATEVALUE(10/03/2014)
`10/03/2014
Any suggestion would be appreciated. Even if it is a macro.
I solved a similar problem to the above that may help someone. Excel interpreted dates imported from CSV as text (mm/dd/yy) and some as dates (mm/dd/yyyy), but applied my local settings (dd/mm/yyyy). The following fixed the mix of text and dates:
=IFERROR(
DATE(
MID(B1,FIND("/", B1,FIND("/", B1)+1)+1,LEN(B1)-(FIND("/", B1,FIND("/", B1)+1)))+2000,
LEFT(B1,FIND("/", B1)-1),
MID(B1,FIND("/", B1,FIND("/", B1))+1,FIND("/", B1,FIND("/", B1)+1)-FIND("/", B1)-1)),
DATE(YEAR(B1),DAY(B1),MONTH(B1)))
The first "DATE" uses the "/" character in the text to extract the date.
NOTE: formula assumes yy to be 20yy.
The last "DATE" reverses the "DAY" and "MONTH" of the incorrectly interpreted dates.
The "IFERROR" defaults to the last date when "FIND" does not locate "/" in an Excel date (456789).
Could it be that your windows / excel regional settings for date format are different than the the JDE dump?
Check the "dates" that are recognized by changing the format to display the month as text to verify that it is actually interpreted correctly.
I have an input spreadsheet that needs to get sorted by date. The current format of the date is in the UK format (dd/mm/yyyy) but I need it in yyyy-mm-dd (actually I don't, I just need to sort it and that format is the most foolproof way of sorting). This all needs to be done in VBA as it's part of a bigger project that allows a bunch of data collation at once. The other problem is that the input sheet can be quite large (150,000+ rows). So, while I could parse through each row of data and change it around to the way I need, this would be horrifically slow and is NOT an option.
Currently I'm using this bit of code to format the date to yyyy-mm-dd:
inputGADRSheet.Columns(7).NumberFormat = "yyyy-mm-dd"
But, Excel outsmarts me and assumes that the date format of the column is originally in the US format (mm/dd/yyyy) which messes everything up and half of the values in the column don't meet that requirement (days above the 12th) so they don't get formatted at all. Is there any way to tell Excel what format the current data is in? That way it won't just assume that it's in the US date format...
Is the solution to change my Excel region to the UK. I assume this could be done using VBA, but it seems risky...
If your data is already in an Excel column, you can't reinterpret the values: Excel date values are (internally) number, 1 representing 1900-01-01. After the data has been (mis-)interpreted by Excel there's no way back.
The question is: Where do you get the input data sheet from? If the dates are entered correctly, reformatting is possible without any problem and does not affect sorting (which depends only on the numeric value of the date). If your data comes from a text file (probably .csv-kind), be sure to read ii as text and use Excel worksheet functions or VBA to interpret the values.
Currently im facing issue that troubles me a lot. I hope that somebody could help me out. I work for big company where are both Office 2007 (32bit) and Office 2010 (64 bit) used. Writing macros to be compatibile through whole company was hard task for me (I've never programmed in VBA before - actually this forum helped me a lot). My task is to maintain one big table in shared Excel sheet. There are several macros and several userforms. Now i will decsribe the problem briefly:
Sheet contains two columns with date format (start date and close date). Both values are imported to column form userform's textboxes (commandbutton lunches MsCal -exported to class- which fills those textboxes with date). What I simply need is to have date format as mm/dd/yyyy in both columns in order to perform filtering and other operations. When this values are updated by worker that uses different localization than English U.S. date is entered as dd.mm.yyyy. Thats make proper filtering based on date impossible. I tried to alter formating by:
UserForm1.TextBox10.Value = Format(Calendar1.Value, "mm/dd/yyyy")
but this piece of code misbehave somehow. On some machines it works, on some of them it is not working. And thats what is giving me headache. How should i proceed now? Is there a way to force excel to use same date format in sheet and ignore localization settings in Windows? Employees dont want to change localization to English U.S. because they are either used to their format, or need it for other applications. Is there a way to temporarily change localization only when this sheet opens?
Any advice will be apreciated.
Thanks in Advance
Peter
The best you can do is NEVER transform a date variable into Text.
Internally for excel a date is just a consecutive number (Left from the decimal separator are days and right from the decimal separator are hours). So, for example, the 10th of June 2012, for excel is 41188. This date value is independent of the date format set on your computer.
Now when it comes to represent dates (for humans to visualize) Excel will format this internal value into a String with the format set in your computer. So, for example if you have US date format in your computer, the date 41188 will be formated as 6/10/2012.
The big challenge with dates is to input the date in the correct format. When you input a Date as a string ("6/10/2012") then Excel will interpret it depending on the date format set on your computer. If you have US format, then it will thake the first cypher as month, the second as day and the last as the year. If you have a German format, it will read the first as day, the next as month and the last as year. So, the same input ("6/10/2012") for a US Format Excel will read 10th of june as for a German format Excel will read 6th of Oktober.
In your case, you should NOT format the date inside the Textbox10. For a US format Excel there is no problem, but if you have another date format, where the first cypher is the day instead of the month, you will get the wrong values:
Check this example. User inputs 10th of June in a German format Excel (dd.mm.yyyy)
Calendar1.Value retrieves a date value (41188)
Format(Calendar1.Value, "mm/dd/yyyy") transforms the date value into a string "06/10/2012"
When using the formated date (STRING), Excel will have to interpret what date it is. Because the computer date format is German, it will read Day:06, Month:10, Year:2012. You will be using day 41070 instead of 41188
If Calendar1.Value retrieves a Date variable and you give this date variable into a Date formated column, you will allways get the correct dale in your column and you will be able to filter and sort dates correctly regardless of the date format set inside the Column cells or the format set in the users computer.
Now, in your case, the best would be to assign directly the Calendar1.Value to the required cell. Something like:
ThisworkBook.WorkSheets("Sheet1").Range("C3").Value= Calendar1.Value
You can still asign Calendar1.Value into the TextBox10 for the user to see his selection, but disable the TextBox10 so that the only edit option is the calendar control. And when working with the date, istead of thaking it from the TextBox10, taking it directly from the Calendar1.Value .
If you still need to show the selected value from Calendar1 into a textBox then do NOT format the date in the Textbox. Instead, use:
UserForm1.TextBox10.Value = Cstr(Calendar1.Value)
This way, the user will see the date in the dateformat that he has set in his computer and to which he is used to.
One solution is to not use the date number format but rather only use the custom format for all your cell dates where you specify "mm/dd/yyyy" as the formatting string. However, in my experience, if your computer's regional settings are set to use "mm/dd/yyyy" then if you try make a custom cell formatting with this same string excel will keep as a dater linked to the computer setting so that doesn't help you. The way I worked around this was to change the date format on my computer, then format the cells as custom "mm/dd/yyyy" and save (and then turn your computer's settings back to how they were.) Now even though excel still claims they are date cells, you'll see that changing the settings on your computer doesn't change the value in the cell.
I guess another way is to always have a cell next to your date cell that calls the TEXT function. So if you have a date in A1 then in another cell =TEXT(A1, "mm/dd/yyyy") and only refer to this new cell. But that could make your spread sheet very messy.
I guess the best solution is to just get you IT dept to set every one in the company's date settings to use the same formats.
I am reading and fetching information from excel file using interop but I faced one problem that when I read date from my excel file. 02/05/2012; It gives 41060.
How can I read proper date value or why it returns 41060?
You found your answer but some background might help.
Excel holds dates and times as numbers. If a user types 31-May-2012 into a cell, Excel recognises this as a date so stores the value as 41060 and sets the number format to "dd-mmm-yyyy". If a user types 41060 into a cell and sets the number format to "dd-mmm-yyyy", the value will be displayed as 31-May-2012. Once the data entry is finished, Excel does not record that the first 41060 was entered as a date and the second as a number.
On a PC, the integer part of a date is days since the year 1900 (On a Mac the year 1904 is used) and the decimal part is:
time in seconds
---------------
seconds in day
So 41060.25 represents: 31 May 2012 6:00:00
When reading data via the Excel InterOp, I suggest you get .NumberFormat as well as .Value if you do not know the type of the data. .Text might also be useful; it gives the value the user sees.
Warning: if you do get .NumberFormat, the formats used by Excel are slightly different from the formats used by VBA's Format() and from VB.Net's Format().
Visit How to use dates and times in Excel for more detail on Excel dates.
I found that it returns date in double so doing DateTime.FromOADate(41060) will return proper formatted date.
Some background: For a project I'm working on (building an XML DOM from a given excel spreadsheet of customer data), I need to be able to read the contents of a cell with a datetime in it. The cell in question contains "7/22/2011 0:00," and when I right-click->format cells, it tells me the category is "Custom" (not in the standard date category), and of type "m/d/yyyy h:mm." Yet when I select the cell, the formula pane displays it as "7/22/2011 12:00:00AM." So all three of these attempts to categorize the datatypes don't match up.
The problem: When I display the cell contents using ActiveWorkbook.ActiveSheet.Cells(x,y) in a MsgBox for debugging purposes, it only shows 7/22/2011 (cutting off the time). It can't be the space in between the date and time that throws it off, as I am successfully reading cells with spaces in them elsewhere in the spreadsheet.
Can anyone tell me why this is happening, or point me in the right direction for a VBA/Excel method that doesn't do this weird cropping thing that Sheet.Cells(x,y) is doing? Thanks. If only I had a penny for every time datetime datatypes caused problems for me..
Internally, Excel stores dates as numbers. It doesn't implement a date type. The number is the number of days since some point in the past (1900 or 1904, depending on the operation system, with some mistakes built-in regarding leap years). Time is represented as the fractional part of the number.
To make it look like a date to the user, you have to assign the cell a date format. Then the number is displayed as a date in the cell. (Excel assigns a date format automatically if you enter somethings that looks like a date to Excel.)
When you use ActiveWorkbook.ActiveSheet.Cells(x,y), you create a Range object and call its default property, which is Value. Value has a lot of magic built-in. In your case, it looks at the cell format and - seeing a date format - in converts the internally stored number into a Variant of subtype date. When you display it using a message box, the next trick happens. If the time is 0:00, the date is converted to a string without time. If the time were different from 0:00, it would be converted to a string with date and time. The date format is taken from your user's settings. Its independent of the date format you have assigned to the Excel cell.
If you use Value2 instead of Value (e.g. by using a messag box to display ActiveWorkbook.ActiveSheet.Cells(x,y).Value2), then you'll see the internal representation of the date, namely a number.
When you edit a cell, Excel uses yet another date format so you can see and edit all parts of the date: year, month, day and possibly hour, minutes and seconds. This is because your cell's date format could be restricted to just the month name.
Another complexity is added by internationalization. Certain date formats aren't applied directly but are a hint for using a date format from the current user's settings. So the format is first replaced with another date format and then applied. Furthermore, certain parts of the date and time formats are affected by the user's settings. And finally, the patterns of the date format are translated (in English, yyyy stands for the year, in German it's jjjj). When the Excel spreadsheet is saved, these formats are stored in the English form so that the sheet can be opened by user's and Excel installations with any language. In your case, internationalization probably affects the date format used when you edit the cell (putting month before day and using 12-hour display with AM/PM looks like Northern America).
I don't quite understand why Excel displays "7/22/2011 12:00:00AM" (instead of "7/22/2011 0:00:00AM"). I'm pretty sure your date/time has a time part of "0:00". But the internal number (as reveal by Value2) will tell you for sure.
It's like a formula, in the cell it will show the result, in the formula bar it will show the formula. The cell you can format, the formula bar you cannot. So you can change the cell's format to however you would like it to look like.
So, if you want to format the msgbox then you would need to do the following:
MsgBox (Format(ActiveWorkbook.ActiveSheet.Cells(x,y), "m/d/yyyy h:mm")