Using Date Grouping in Pivot Tables

I've tried (to a maddening end) to figure out how to do this. According to
the Excel help, once I've created a pivot table, all I need to do is select
the column of dates, select group, and then a sub window will open up to
allow me to subdivide by week, month, etc. However, despite every and any
known attempt to alter the structure of the dates, I can never get the option
to appear and all that Excel (using 2003) will do is put it in a generic
Group1.

The file I'm working with is a CSV output from an SQL table. Excel opens it
without any problem, and easily recognizes the dates and offers all the
formatting options, save the pivot table recognizing this as a date for
grouping. I've even tried exporting to Access and reimporting as text, as
excel.

Does anyone know format the pivot table is looking for. Is there some sort
of conversion I need to do? None of the excel date conversion functions work
because the dates are already (it seems) in excel format.

Make sure the dates are numeric, they are probably seen as text

--
Regards,

Peo Sjoblom


"RaoulDuke" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I've tried (to a maddening end) to figure out how to do this. According to
> the Excel help, once I've created a pivot table, all I need to do is
> select
> the column of dates, select group, and then a sub window will open up to
> allow me to subdivide by week, month, etc. However, despite every and any
> known attempt to alter the structure of the dates, I can never get the
> option
> to appear and all that Excel (using 2003) will do is put it in a generic
> Group1.
>
> The file I'm working with is a CSV output from an SQL table. Excel opens
> it
> without any problem, and easily recognizes the dates and offers all the
> formatting options, save the pivot table recognizing this as a date for
> grouping. I've even tried exporting to Access and reimporting as text, as
> excel.
>
> Does anyone know format the pivot table is looking for. Is there some sort
> of conversion I need to do? None of the excel date conversion functions
> work
> because the dates are already (it seems) in excel format.