Question on sorting dates

After I download data from a database, the data in the date column is in date
format, as for example, "11/02/2004". To make sure they are in date format, I
format them again. Then I tried to sort the date in an ascending order, it
doesn't work. It did some sorting work, but it put November dates right after
January dates, and then Feb, Mar.... I guess Excel doesn't really take this
column of data as dates.

Any help is appreciated.

Jason

What happens if you test with a formula

=ISTEXT(A2)

if it returns TRUE the dates are text, if so, copy an empty cell, select the
dates
and do edit>paste special and select add, then reformat the dates as mm/dd/yyy
or dd/mm/yyyy depending on whether dates are US or UK format
If that does nolt help you probably have trailing or leading spaces as well,
then you can first do an edit>replace and replace a space with nothing

Regards,

Peo Sjoblom

"Excel heavy user" wrote:

> After I download data from a database, the data in the date column is in date
> format, as for example, "11/02/2004". To make sure they are in date format, I
> format them again. Then I tried to sort the date in an ascending order, it
> doesn't work. It did some sorting work, but it put November dates right after
> January dates, and then Feb, Mar.... I guess Excel doesn't really take this
> column of data as dates.
>
> Any help is appreciated.
>
> Jason

Thanks a lot.

Jason

"Peo Sjoblom" wrote:

> What happens if you test with a formula
>
> =ISTEXT(A2)
>
> if it returns TRUE the dates are text, if so, copy an empty cell, select the
> dates
> and do edit>paste special and select add, then reformat the dates as mm/dd/yyy
> or dd/mm/yyyy depending on whether dates are US or UK format
> If that does nolt help you probably have trailing or leading spaces as well,
> then you can first do an edit>replace and replace a space with nothing
>
> Regards,
>
> Peo Sjoblom
>
> "Excel heavy user" wrote:
>
> > After I download data from a database, the data in the date column is in date
> > format, as for example, "11/02/2004". To make sure they are in date format, I
> > format them again. Then I tried to sort the date in an ascending order, it
> > doesn't work. It did some sorting work, but it put November dates right after
> > January dates, and then Feb, Mar.... I guess Excel doesn't really take this
> > column of data as dates.
> >
> > Any help is appreciated.
> >
> > Jason

>-----Original Message-----
>After I download data from a database, the data in the
date column is in date
>format, as for example, "11/02/2004". To make sure they
are in date format, I
>format them again. Then I tried to sort the date in an
ascending order, it
>doesn't work. It did some sorting work, but it put
November dates right after
>January dates, and then Feb, Mar.... I guess Excel
doesn't really take this
>column of data as dates.
>
>Any help is appreciated.
>
>Jason
>.
When formatting your cells in Excel, try the GENERAL
format selection and see if that helps. Mine sorts
correctly when set that way and using your example. Greg