Posts by Charles Murphy78

Nicholas King said:Excel probably thinks those "old" values are just text instead of actual numbers (check if they're left-aligned in the cell while the "new" ones are right-aligned?)

Try doing this:

When I imported that .dbf file from dBase into Excel, I didn't even realize it had already slapped a dark "Totals Row" in there, so I started typing data right on top of it. Now, it’s treating all those entries as text, so I can't run any calculations. You hit the nail on the head—they're all left-aligned, and that specific row won't recognize anything as a number, even though the rest of the rows (both old and new) work fine. I tried deleting the "Totals Row" to turn it back into a regular row, but nothing changes with the formatting; I can tweak colors and styles for the old data, but nothing works for the stuff underneath. It honestly feels like Excel is strictly separating the imported data from anything typed directly into the sheet. It's not a huge deal, but if there's a way to fix it, cool. Thanks a ton for the help!

Guys, it actually works! I feel like I finally stepped out of the Stone Age. I followed the steps exactly how Nicholas King laid them out, and it was a success. The only weird thing is the cell formatting—it’s totally different for this "new" section compared to the "old" part. Everything functions perfectly for all the data I migrated over from dBase, so I can easily tweak the column styles for the old stuff, but it won't let me touch the styling for this recent batch I've been doing in Excel. On top of that, if I try to sum one number from the "old" section and one from the "new" section, it fails. For example, using =SUM(I2696;I2697) just gives me whatever is in I2697, because it treats I2696 like a zero. If anyone has a clue what's going on, I'd really appreciate the help!

Nicholas King said:If I'm following you right, you just need a one-time conversion. There's probably an easier way, but this gets the job done:

- open up a blank column to calculate those shifted dates;

- if your "old" dates are in Column A, type =DATE(YEAR(A1)+100,MONTH(A1),DAY(A1)) into the empty cell

- drag that formula down as far as you need to

- select those new "shifted" dates and copy them

- click the first "old" date cell and do paste special -> Values

- delete that extra column you made.

First off, thanks for the help! It'll be fine once I figure out how to actually apply this formula. Here's what I tried. My dates are in Column A and go from A2 to A2696—those are the ones that are a hundred years off—and then from A2697 to A2702 they look correct. I typed the formula right below the last correct date like this: =DATE(YEAR(A2:A2696)+100,MONTH(A2:A2696),DAY(A2:A2696))
But nothing happens, except everything gets outlined in a thin blue box and tells me I've entered too many arguments. I bet you can see exactly where I messed up just by looking at it. I only started using Excel a few days ago, so I'm still pretty lost. Thanks again, cheers!

Man, I think I’m in a bit of a jam. Up until a few days ago, I was using dBase—just a simple little program that runs fine even in DOS. Now, Excel has imported all my dBase files (.dbf files), but it’s acting like every single year is 100 years in the past. In dBase, I only ever typed in two digits for the year, like 07 for 2007, and I always knew it stored it as 1907. It was never an issue before because I only ever looked at those two digits plus the date. Is there any way to bulk-update all these years by 100 years without messing up the days or months? I’ve been using dBase since 2000, so right now all my data is showing up as being from 1900 to 1911. To make matters worse, it’s tripping me up when I try to process things; if I try to sum data across old and new dates, it won't work, and the cells turn blue for the old dates while staying white for the new ones. Thanks in advance for any help...