I am storing some values in my excel using vba and them comparing with other results. The results can be whatever: name, surname, address, time...
The problem that I have is that when I store a string that has a date format it takes it as time automatically. For example if I enter 8:15 it automatically convert it to 08:15 and then when I am comparing it with other value that is the same (8:15) it returns me false because it is not 08:15.
So basically the question is... how can I introduce a value like 8:15 without being converted to 08:15?
Two methods:
Put an apostraphe at the front of the value to tell Excel it's a string. Example: The value '8:15 will be interpreted as a string of value "8:15".
Use a formula to store the value as a string. Example: ="8:15" is also interpreted as a string of value "8:15".
I'm assuming this is when you're entering the values in Cells. the format of the cells is probably general, thus it formats things like numbers or dates different. Change it to text.
select all (or specific columns) right click - format cells - number tab - text option. it says there "text format cells are treated as text even when a number is in the cell. the cell is displayed exactly as entered"
edit
another option, in VBA use .FormulaR1C1 instead of .value when comparing. .value is the actual value of the cell (like a formula result) where as .formulaR1C1 will give you the actual entered text. so .formulaR1C1 might get you the actual entered 8:15 instead of the corrected value: 08:15.
Related
I am needing to customize cells with simple thousands format, like 1000, without any separator or decimal.
However, I wish to remove text fonts other than a number when they are input.
For example, I want to input 120118, however in my paper from which I am copying that figures, it is formatted as a date, thereby 12/01/18. I am needing Excel to simply keep it as 120118 after typing, removing the slash (/). I have seen similar settings in access queries.
Have you tried simply pasting only the cell value with:
Selection.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteValues
Or just clear the cell format and format it again with your desired format.
Try:
Selecting the range
Home > Number > Number Format (or Ctrl+1 I think) > Custom
Enter ddmmyy
Okay
Can be done programmatically e.g.
Thisworkbook.worksheets("Sheet1").range("A1:A50").numberformat = "ddmmyy"
The above would only be a visual/cosmetic change and the internal value of each cell would still be a date (technically a number) for calculation purposes.
However, if I've misunderstood and you instead want to go from the date 21 Jan 2018 to the number 210118, I think you would need to get the range's value(s), format as DDMMYY string, then clng() - or maybe (DD*10000) + (MM*100) + (YY) might work, then format as "000000" to preserve leading zeros.
Firstly, important to note that I'm in the UK so standard date format is dd/mm/yyyy
In a A1, I have a date: 02/05/2017 (dd/mm/yyyy)
I can confirm this in the immediate window:
?CLng(Range("A1").Value)
42857
Now, if I do the following:
Range("A1").Value = Range("A1").Value
you can probably guess, nothing happens - the date is still 02/05/2017 and the numeric value is still 42857
But if I use trim with it:
Range("A1").Value = Trim(Range("A1").Value)
The date is changed to 05/02/2017. This isn't just formatting - the numeric value has also changed to 42771.
What is it about the Trim() method that causes the date to be read in US format and then converted back to UK format with a new date value? Is this a bug?
From the discussion in comments:
The default or "token" format in VBA (not Excel itself, as Macro Man rightly pointed out) is US English - regardless of regional settings or cell formatting.
When you do VBA text functions on a date, the output of those functions are in text format. So the result of Trim(Range("A1").Value) is a string. This string happens to resemble a proper US date, so when you insert it into a cell, Excel recognizes it as a US date.
So two implicit conversions happen. The first happens when you read the cell contents and pass it to trim(): date->text conversion; the second happens when you write it back to an Excel cell: text->date conversion. The second conversion has no information about the format, so it assumes US English.
(You should be able to achieve the same result with any text function, not just trim().)
I found out that if you add "'" before the date, the date is not altered.
Range("A1").Value = "'"&Trim(Range("A1").Value)
Sometimes I like to display numbers along with text in the same cell. To do this, I custom format the cell to something like 0.00" test", e.g. a cell A1 with formula =PI(), but formatted with custom format 0.00" test" would return a displayed result of 3.14 test.
Crucially, the value of the cell is unchanged by the formatting - you can still do =A1 * 3 in another cell and get the result - since the value of A1 is still Pi, only it's display has changed.
For a UDF that returns a numerical value (in my case, Long, but it could be any number), is there a way of returning a cell such that it is displayed 1 way, but it's actual value (.Value2 in VBA I believe) is a number, not text.
I've tried Format( in VBA, but it returns a text string. I would just format my cell how I want it manually, but as you can see from the below code, the formatting is dependent on intermediate results (I'm trying to return the value formatted with the time the calculation took).
UDF_RESULT = Format(valueResult.Length, IIf(tElapsed < timeout, "0" & " """ & Round(tElapsed, 2) & "s""", "0"))
This would be easy to do with a Macro, but within a UDF it's harder. I could declare all of the intermediate values at a module level, then a Worksheet_Calculate() macro can access those values and apply the custom formatting, but a UDF-wrapped approach would be much better.
No.
You're confusing a cell's value with its number format. A UDF can compute a value, and the cell is free to format that value as needed.
So if a UDF returns a number, the cell's value is the result of that function - a number.
Just format the cell as needed. A function doesn't format anything.
I am having trouble changing the title of some columns in a pivot table. I'm trying to make them have dates in them. Each date 6 days further from the last.
Like this
But, I cannot get an equation inside the column title to stay, every time I type in the equation and press enter, it evaluates to either 0 (If the format of the cell is number or general), or 1/0/1990 (If formatted as a date). I checked the value of the cell by =ISTEXT(A1) and it evaluates as true. No matter how I format the cell. So I can never change the title to look like the picture. Any ides?
Here is what I have.
TRUE is the result from ISTEXT()
Even if I manually enter in the formula via the function arguments, it'll show up correct, but when I click ok. It will go back to either 0 or 1/0/1990
Here's the original page
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3p8Jm7oNAo4ZUN0Qk1mR1cxYmM/view?usp=sharing
In Excel, dynamic values (formulas) in the header of a table-formatted table are not allowed.
Instead, you can first generate your table header and then format the table as (pivot-)table. You should get a message saying that the header row will be converted in static text (with correct format).
I have a user input box where you type in a string, annoyingly this string looks like a date 00/00/0000 and excel reformats it as such.
When the value can't be a date ex. 18/19/4561 (month can't be 18 or 19) it displays it correctly.
But whenever it can be seen as a possible date it switches things around.
I've tried setting the value as a string rather than nothing but excel still changes it when putting it in the page.
When I try manually inputting it in the cell or equal the values from a manually entered cell it works fine.
But whenever I get it from the inputbox it messes with it. Even when I hard code the string to a variable (x = "05/06/4564") it switches things around.
How do I force excel to leave the string as is?
Prefix the value with a single apostrophe and Excel will interpret it as a string.
Eg '18/19/4561
Also, have you tried setting the cell format to Text