sorting by dates

[rbsoks]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

I have a column with dates... all entries are for the same year (2009) so the data in the column is strictly Month and day...
Mar-03
Feb-21
Apr-12
Jan-25
May-07 and more
how can I sort these entries to put them in chronological order?
It appears to recognize this as a date format but I don't know how to get it sorted.
Thanks from Rex

 

[Niek Otten]

If they are real Excel dates, just sort Ascending. Excel will look at tge
date value, not at what is shown in the cell.

 

[CyberTaz]

Have you examined the formatting of the cells to confirm that they are in
fact Dates? Just because they "look like dates" doesn't mean they aren't
formatted as Text... Or are you saying that you simply don't know how to
access the Sorting features of the program? I'm really not sure what the
question is :-}

 

[rbsoks]

thanks for the responses.
I played around with the format some more and it seems that when I have Mar-03 or Apr-12 or Jan-25
Excel interprets those to be
March 2003, April 2012, Jan. 2025.

When I re-entered all the dates with day/month/year in each cell,
I discovered that I can display whatever part of the date I want to see and sort them without any problem into chronological order.

So, another question is:
Does Excel (or any MS Office program) support the ISO 8601 date standard of yyyy-mm-dd ??

Regards,
REX

 

[Mike Middleton]

REX or rbsoks -

Excel stores dates as serial numbers. Those serial numbers can be displayed
in various ways. Select a cell containing a date, and choose Format | Cells
| Number | Date. If you don't see the format you want, select Custom, enter
a new type: yyyy-mm-dd, and click OK.

- Mike

http://www.MikeMiddleton.com

 

[CyberTaz]

An extension to Mike's accurate reply:

You have to be explicit as to whethre you're referring to date *entry* or
date *display*.

Excel takes its cue from your system settings as far as interpreting what
you enter. As long as you enter it in the order dictated by your
International preferences you can format it to display in any manner you
wish. If you have your system prefs set one way & enter it in a different
order month will be mistaken for day, etc.

 

[rbsoks]

hi all,
all your responses have helped.
It's quite clear to me now, especially the part that ties the Excel formatting to the system preferences.
Thanks to all.
Rex (rbsoks) in Winnipeg