Works: Acceptable Date Formats in Spreadsheets and Databases (76999)

SUMMARY

You can type a date in any format in a Works for Windows database or spreadsheet if you don't plan to use formulas with the dates or if you don't plan to sort them. However, if you want to use the dates in formulas or to perform a sort based on them (that is, earliest dates first), you must type the dates in a format Works recognizes.

To use a format that Works recognizes, enter the date in one of the pre-defined date formats such as "mm/dd/yy". For example, enter the date October 30, 1991 by typing 10/30/91 in the database date field or spreadsheet date cell.

If you enter the date in a format that is not pre-defined, such as "mm-dd-yy" (using hyphens instead of forward slashes), Works will not recognize the entry as a date because it is not a pre-defined format.

MORE INFORMATION

The following is a list of the Works pre-defined date formats. If you enter a date in any of these formats, Works can perform calculations and sort chronologically in the database or spreadsheet.

To Enter This	Type the Date As Follows
Month, day, year (long form)	October 30, 1991
Month, year (long form)	October 1991
Month, day (long form)	October 30
Month (long form)	October
Month, day, year (short form)	10/30/1991
Month, year (short form)	10/1991
Month, day (short form)	10/30

NOTE: The year can be entered in abbreviated form (for example, 10/30/91) in all of the above examples and the program will still work correctly.

Works stores a date as a serial date, which is an integer value assigned to a date. Works assigns the value 1 to January 1, 1900, the value 2 to January 2, 1900, and so on. Many spreadsheet programs use this algorithm so they can perform arithmetic calculations with dates. The valid date range in Works is 1/1/1900 to 6/3/2079.