Microsoft KB Archive/21563

Time-Date Entry Does Not Seem to Work PSS ID Number: Q21563 Article last modified on 04-16-1987 PSS database name: D_MPlan

3.0

MS-DOS

Question: The Time-Date functions as described in the manual do not appear to work. The manual says to type in the date–for example, 27/3/87–with “alpha” and Multiplan will automatically recognize that a date is entered. Even formatting afterward with Format-Time-Date does not alter the cell.

Response: I have tried all the examples in the Multiplan documentation, as found on Page 173, and have been unable to find any problems with the way that the date entry is done. In your example, it looks like you were trying to enter the date as dd/mm/yy rather than as mm/dd/yy and letting Format-Time-Date cells do the display adjustment. However, if you’ve set your DOS country code to something other than USA (e.g., the DOS country code for Australia is 61), and that country does not use mm/dd/yy format, then you cannot enter dates in mm/dd/yy format. In Australia, DOS reports that the date format is dd/mm/yy, and therefore dates should be entered in that form. We have noticed that in order to enter dates in dd/mm/yy format, they must be separated by hyphens and not slashes (e.g., 27-03-87). A rule of thumb is to look at the formats shown in the Format-Date-Time Cells list before you create any of your own formats. You can use any of the formats that are displayed exactly as shown.

Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1987.