All,
If you use Excel, and you import stock price data into a spreadsheet, you may find that the 'date' data is treated as text. If so, you cannot use the data column to sort the data, or use in any calculations you may do on the spreadsheet.
All is not lost, MicroSoft has a way to force the column of 'date as text data' information into 'date as a numeric data'.
Here is the text from the Excel support area of microsoft.com:
support.microsoft.com
The imported value may appear to be an acceptable date, such as Oct-91. However, if you look at the value of the given cell by choosing Show Info from the Window menu, the value is actually enclosed in quotation marks "Oct-91", indicating that it is actually a text string.
Re-evaluating the cell by selecting it, pressing F2 to activate the formula bar, and pressing ENTER will cause the text to convert to a value. However, if you have a range of cells containing dates to be converted, this method can be cumbersome. You can re-evaluate a range of cells easily by performing the following steps:
1.Select the cell (or range of cells).
2.From the Formula menu, choose Replace.
3.Enter a hyphen (-) in both the Find What box and the Replace With box.
4.Select Replace All.
Replacing the hyphen forces Excel to re-evaluate the content of the cells and therefore recognize it as a date.
REFERENCES
"Microsoft Excel User's Guide", version 3.0, pages 170-171
Please note that if your data file uses a symbol other than the 'hyphen'... just substitute that character eg / for the - in the above procedure.
Ben A.
pipeline.com |
