Why can't I convert Long date format to Short date

[Jason]

Hi,

I recently received a report filled with dates in Long Date format (Friday,
January 22, 2010). I would like to convert these dates into Short date
format but Excel will not let me. I don't know if this is a bug within
Excel. I have tried both Excel 2003 and 2007 with the same problem.

My regional settings is set to English (United States). I am not sure what
I am doing wrong? It doesn't seem that Excel allows the use of the long date
field even though you can take a short date and convert it to long date but
not the other way around.

Can someone please tell me if this is a limitation within Excel?

 

[Mike H]

Jason,

Are you sure it's a properly formatted date? It may be text. Try adding 1 to
it and see if it increases by 1 day
--
Mike

When competing hypotheses are otherwise equal, adopt the hypothesis that
introduces the fewest assumptions while still sufficiently answering the
question.