Microsoft KB Archive/166740

= XL97: Formula Errors Appear After Updating PivotTable =

Article ID: 166740

Article Last Modified on 8/17/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 95 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q166740



SYMPTOMS
When you update a PivotTable, formulas that refer to a date in the PivotTable return an error value.



CAUSE
This problem occurs when all of the following conditions are true:
 * You open a workbook that was created in an earlier version of Microsoft Excel. -and-


 * The workbook includes a PivotTable that contains dates. -and-


 * You use formulas that explicitly refer to those dates.

For additional information about using dates as text in PivotTables, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

109420 XL: Dates in Pivot Table May Be Converted into Text



WORKAROUND
To work around this behavior, edit the formula to refer to the date as a date value instead of a text value. For example, retype the following lookup formula =VLOOKUP("7/25/59",$D$1:$G$10,4) as follows: =VLOOKUP(DateValue("7/25/59"),$D$1:$G$10,4)



MORE INFORMATION
In earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, dates in a PivotTable are automatically formatted as text. This means that if you reformat a cell that contains a date with a number format, the format in the cell is reset to a text number format when you update the PivotTable. However, Microsoft Excel 97 allows you to use rich text formatting in a PivotTable, including dates.

Microsoft Excel 97 automatically formats any date in a PivotTable with a date format. This is an enhanced formatting feature and is different from earlier versions of Microsoft Excel. Therefore, a formula that refers to a date that uses the text format in a PivotTable returns an incorrect result or an error value, such as the #N/A or #VALUE! value.

Additional query words: XL97 pivot table break calculation err upgrade

Keywords: KB166740

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