how to turn off excel's auto formatting of data.

Hi - welcome to the board!

Why not just format the cells in question as you want them before you construct the formulas / inport the data?

hello again,

formatting the cells beforehand is one way of approaching the problem, but it often doesn't help. 28:17 still becomes "01-01-1900 04:17:00" even if i format the cells to be text cells before entering the data. what on earth is causing excel to handle this hours:minutes data as a date & hours data?

anyway, does that sound a bit illogical reasoning with excel? you have to format the cells before you enter the data so excel doesn't automatically format the data for you. shouldn't it be the other way around? -- the data in the cells is NOT formatted automatically by excel but is determined by the user. also, it is often that one cannot foresee how the cells will be used in order to format before entering text.

isn't there some function in the options section that turns the autoformatting off? word has an autoformatting window where all its annoying autoformatting is de-selected.

bruno

Excel interprets 28:17 as 28 hours and 17 minutes. As a date serial number this is 1.178472 - that's one day and 4hours 17 minutes. Day one is 1st Jan 1900, so that's what you get.

You can avoid the autoformatting by clicking the column(s) and checking Text as the Column data format at Step 3 of the Text Import Wizard.

bruno, Excel's treatment of time values is explained in the Excel Help topic for "Tips on entering dates and times"...

Microsoft Excel treats dates and times as numbers. The way that a time or date is displayed on a worksheet depends on the number format applied to the cell. When you type a date or time that Excel recognizes, the cell's format changes from the General number format to a built-in date or time format. By default, dates and times are right-aligned in a cell. If Excel cannot recognize the date or time format, the date or time is entered as text, which is left-aligned in the cell.

Click to expand...

This (meaning entering numbers in format NNNN:NN) can be a pain because once Excel has formatted the actual VALUE in the cell has been altered. If you format back to text you may end up with a number that was not what you entered.

The following VBA function should convert the altered value back to it's original.

Function GetTextBackFromDate(oCell As Range) As String

Dim v_Value As String
Dim v_Number As Double
Dim v_Days As Integer
Dim v_DayHours As Integer


Dim v_PartialDays As Double
Dim v_PartialDayHours As Integer
Dim v_PartialHours As Double
Dim v_Minutes As Double
Dim v_IntMins As Integer


Dim v_TotalHours As Integer


On Error GoTo EH:

v_Value = oCell.Value

v_Number = CDbl(v_Value)
v_Days = Round(v_Number)
v_DayHours = v_Days * 24

v_PartialDays = v_Number - v_Days
v_PartialDayHours = Round((v_PartialDays * 24), 0)

v_PartialHours = (v_PartialDays * 24) - v_PartialDayHours
v_Minutes = Round(v_PartialHours * 60, 0)

v_TotalHours = v_DayHours + v_PartialDayHours

GetTextBackFromDate = CStr(v_TotalHours) & ":" & CStr(v_Minutes)

Exit Function
EH:
GetTextBackFromDate = "Error"

End Function

I am having trouble with this same problem. I don't understand how to apply the code to my problem. I have column A full of data from an imported source. Data is not dated but uses a ":" to seperate a 4 or 5 digit number from a 1 to 4 digit number when ever the second part of the number xxxx:yy is below 61 it thinks It is a time/date. Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

My solution follows: I'm using Excel X for Mac. I have to import large masses of hyphenated data for mapping purposes (usually designating particular coordinates), usually from .txt files imported from my GPS. The auto date drives me crazy, especially since I often have to import dozens or hundreds of coordinates that I can't change manually. I couldn't find any clear or specific answers online, but this worked for me: File>Import>Text Import Wizard Step 3> select the appropriate data column, then the TEXT radio button, then FINISH. Everything in the column should import without change. I'm not sure if this will carry over into the Windows environment, but it might be worth a shot.

Just a quick clarification of my earlier instructions. In the command sequence, "File>Import" should be "File>Open". The sequence should thus be File>Open>Text Import Wizard Step 3 of 3>select the appropriate data column, then the TEXT radio button, then FINISH. Sorry if this caused any confusion.

Great advice. Converting to text in step 3 of import wizard works very well.

Thanks.