help with MS excel when i type numbers into excel i keep getting dates wot do i do?

Answer 1

Does this happen when you start a new spreadsheet, or when you are working on one that some formatting of cells has been done.

If it is a new one, then your numbers should be fine. You do not mention what type of numbers you type. If you type a number that resembles a date, for example a fraction 12/7 then Excel will probably think it is a date and make it 7-Dec.

If you just format the cell afterwards, then you will get a number that is the date as a serial number. Not what you want and you will have to enter your number again.

So, format your cells first for numbers if you are going to be entering any number that could resemble a date. Excel really likes to make things dates.

Same is true if you are working on a spreadsheet someone else has made - you will have to reformat the cells from dates to numbers.

Answer 2

If you haven't already formatted those cells, Excel formats the cells under the General format. The General format looks at the text you type and tries to determine what kind of data it is.

If I typed:

3/8 or 3-8

Under the General format, Excel would think that I am referring to March 8th of the current year.

If I wanted to enter the fraction of three-eighths and have Excel evaluate it as a number, I would enter zero followed by a space, then 3/8 like this:

0 3/8

If I wanted to do the same for one and three-eighths, I would enter it like this:

1 3/8

If you want Excel to subtract two numbers for you such as three minus 8, you need to use the equals sign like so:

=3-8

If you want Excel to put exactly what you want in the cell, you can put an apostrophe in front of what you want displayed in the cell. Excel will then evaluate the data in the cell as text. So if I type:

'3/8

Excel will display: 3/8 in the cell, but the Excel will treat the data as text and not as a number or a date.

The other things you can do is reformat the cells you want as a certain format. For instance, if you format cell A1 as a number by selecting cell A1 then selecting Format > Cells...

Then you select the Number tab and select the Number format. For this instance, set the number of decimal places to three and click OK. Then if you enter 3/8 in cell A1, Excel will display the decimal value of three-eighths in the cell or 0.375.

If you format cell A1 as Text instead, and enter 3/8 in the cell. Excel will display 3/8 in the cell.

If you format cell A1 as a Date, and enter 3/8 or 3-8. Excel will display March 8th in whatever date format you picked.

Another thing that can be tricky is subtracting two dates. You can look and look and look for an Excel function that gives you the exact number of days between two dates and you won't find one in Excel's help. The reason is because there is no function. The formula actually is really simple. You just subtract the two cells. So let's say I have a date in A1 and another date in B1 and I want to put the difference of days between the two in cell C1. In cell C1, I'd put the formula:

=B1-A1

However, you'll probably get a date as your answer instead of a number like what you really want. The reason is because Excel is using the General format by default and since it is evaluating two dates it thinks it should display the answer as a date. To solve this problem, select cell C1 and format it under the Number format. Then set the decimal places to 0. Then you'll get the answer you want.

Answer 3

Excel is interpreting your input as a date value due to the cell format having been specified as same. Search help for 'number format' if you do not know how to change this.

Answer 4

Change the format of the cell to "number". It is currently formatted to "date".

Answer 5

You need to go in and change the number formatting type. You'll find it under Format/Style/ Modify.

Answer 6

Delete the histroy of your alredy typed stuff