Just spotted an annoying thing!
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In XL, type in a date, say 20th Dec. But Type it in this format... 20/12 and owing to the format I have on the screen it comes out as 20/12/2009. OK, BUT I WANT 20/12/2008! It will not automatically set to the PREVIOUS 20th of Dec! I just noticed this because I wanted an analysis of data and had none to analyse! Easily fixed, but there is no generic way of setting this.
------------------------------------ "The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion" Arthur C Clarke
Dalek Dave wrote:
It will not automatically set to the PREVIOUS 20th of Dec!
Why should it? :-\
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DaveWH wrote:
Why would you expect it to automatically select a previous year?
My bet is, because he believes it should look at the current date, today's date, determine that 20/12/2009 is greater than today's date, and make the educated guess (aka assume), that the user really wants 20/12/2008. But we all know what they say about assumptions ... course, one could argue that the system is already assuming he wants a future date, and this reasoning is not necessarily inaccurate, just depends on what side you want to make your assumption. Frankly, if the system were smart enough, it would recognize all this, and throw up a prompt and ask "Did you mean 2008, 2009 or something else entirely".
Douglas Troy wrote:
My bet is, because he believes it should look at the current date, today's date, determine that 20/12/2009 is greater than today's date, and make the educated guess (aka assume), that the user really wants 20/12/2008.
That would royally screw up projections and budgets.
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In XL, type in a date, say 20th Dec. But Type it in this format... 20/12 and owing to the format I have on the screen it comes out as 20/12/2009. OK, BUT I WANT 20/12/2008! It will not automatically set to the PREVIOUS 20th of Dec! I just noticed this because I wanted an analysis of data and had none to analyse! Easily fixed, but there is no generic way of setting this.
------------------------------------ "The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion" Arthur C Clarke
Yes always the simple things that are annoying when entering accounts across the year end. I must admit I find myself shouting at the computer "Oh, come on! You know what date I wanted!" ;)
Ant. **I'm hard, yet soft.
I'm coloured, yet clear.
I'm fruity and sweet.
I'm jelly, what am I? Muse on it further, I shall return!**- David Walliams (Little Britain)
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Douglas Troy wrote:
My bet is, because he believes it should look at the current date, today's date, determine that 20/12/2009 is greater than today's date, and make the educated guess (aka assume), that the user really wants 20/12/2008.
That would royally screw up projections and budgets.
He was talking about the auto-formatting, when he keys a date into a cell and tabs off that cell, Excel auto-magically fills in the year for him. Not entirely sure how this would "screw up projections and budgets" ... its up to the person keying in the information to make certain the data they enter is indeed what they are expecting, just as Dalek Dave noticed the date was 2009 and not 2008, as he wanted...
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He was talking about the auto-formatting, when he keys a date into a cell and tabs off that cell, Excel auto-magically fills in the year for him. Not entirely sure how this would "screw up projections and budgets" ... its up to the person keying in the information to make certain the data they enter is indeed what they are expecting, just as Dalek Dave noticed the date was 2009 and not 2008, as he wanted...
Say, I don't really know, masses of the dd/mm values were imported from CSV, and Excel did its little tricks?
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Couldn't figure out what XL was. Only thing I could think of was a Ford Galaxy 500 XL. OK, so I'm an old fart - and I had a blond moment. Excel is evil. For that matter, so is Word - can't stand the way it thinks it knows what I want to type. Obviously Excel is the same - it just knows better than you what you want. Uh uh uh - don't argue.
modified on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 12:05 PM
Abu Mami wrote:
Couldn't figure out what XL was.
It's my shirt size :rolleyes:
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link -
If you're going to be lazy why shouldn't it? All's fair.
PIEBALDconsult wrote:
All's fair.
But this is neither love nor war, it's a damn spreadsheet! :rolleyes:
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link -
In XL, type in a date, say 20th Dec. But Type it in this format... 20/12 and owing to the format I have on the screen it comes out as 20/12/2009. OK, BUT I WANT 20/12/2008! It will not automatically set to the PREVIOUS 20th of Dec! I just noticed this because I wanted an analysis of data and had none to analyse! Easily fixed, but there is no generic way of setting this.
------------------------------------ "The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion" Arthur C Clarke
You're using Excel, and you only spotted one annoying thing?
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In XL, type in a date, say 20th Dec. But Type it in this format... 20/12 and owing to the format I have on the screen it comes out as 20/12/2009. OK, BUT I WANT 20/12/2008! It will not automatically set to the PREVIOUS 20th of Dec! I just noticed this because I wanted an analysis of data and had none to analyse! Easily fixed, but there is no generic way of setting this.
------------------------------------ "The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion" Arthur C Clarke
It is totally unreasonable behavior ! Obviously, it should have picked up that you meant 2008 ! I actually think they should build engine that guesses what every dumbass using Excel is trying to do. Actually, lets just have excel read your mind ! That way 20/12 could be 1.66, 20/12/2009, 20/12/2009 and what the hell, even 20/12/1954. Oh and if you are in the US, then it would be 12/20/1954. Microsoft sucks !
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DaveWH wrote:
Why would you expect it to automatically select a previous year?
My bet is, because he believes it should look at the current date, today's date, determine that 20/12/2009 is greater than today's date, and make the educated guess (aka assume), that the user really wants 20/12/2008. But we all know what they say about assumptions ... course, one could argue that the system is already assuming he wants a future date, and this reasoning is not necessarily inaccurate, just depends on what side you want to make your assumption. Frankly, if the system were smart enough, it would recognize all this, and throw up a prompt and ask "Did you mean 2008, 2009 or something else entirely".
Douglas Troy wrote:
Frankly, if the system were smart enough, it would recognize all this, and throw up a prompt and ask "Did you mean 2008, 2009 or something else entirely".
:wtf: :wtf: :wtf: If they did that everyone in both the 08 and 09 camps would be up in arms over the stupid dialog harassment. :doh:
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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Douglas Troy wrote:
Frankly, if the system were smart enough, it would recognize all this, and throw up a prompt and ask "Did you mean 2008, 2009 or something else entirely".
:wtf: :wtf: :wtf: If they did that everyone in both the 08 and 09 camps would be up in arms over the stupid dialog harassment. :doh:
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
HAHAHAHA. Sad, but true. It should just read their minds ... Course, that wouldn't work either, we'd get errors both ways: [Women] Error: User thinking about shoes Error: User thinking about sale at store Error: User thinks her butt looks too big in these pants Error: User thinks this program generates too many errors and was probably developed by a guy [Men] Error: User thinking about sex Error: User thinking about sex Error: User thinking about sex Error: For the love of God, does he ever think about anything else?!?! I'm just say'in.
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Abu Mami wrote:
Couldn't figure out what XL was.
It's my shirt size :rolleyes:
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link -
PIEBALDconsult wrote:
All's fair.
But this is neither love nor war, it's a damn spreadsheet! :rolleyes:
Regards, Nish
Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com linkOh, yeah, not worth worrying about then.
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In XL, type in a date, say 20th Dec. But Type it in this format... 20/12 and owing to the format I have on the screen it comes out as 20/12/2009. OK, BUT I WANT 20/12/2008! It will not automatically set to the PREVIOUS 20th of Dec! I just noticed this because I wanted an analysis of data and had none to analyse! Easily fixed, but there is no generic way of setting this.
------------------------------------ "The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion" Arthur C Clarke
I've also found this annoying but for a different reason, I have a produce that is called a 20/12 .... and every time I enter it into excel it converts it to a data ..especially when I paste. It's getting annoying!
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In XL, type in a date, say 20th Dec. But Type it in this format... 20/12 and owing to the format I have on the screen it comes out as 20/12/2009. OK, BUT I WANT 20/12/2008! It will not automatically set to the PREVIOUS 20th of Dec! I just noticed this because I wanted an analysis of data and had none to analyse! Easily fixed, but there is no generic way of setting this.
------------------------------------ "The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion" Arthur C Clarke
Dave, every system I've ever worked with that permits dd/mm (or, in the US, mm/dd) has always assumed that the current calendar year will be used, unless it is a system specifically designed to use a system-specific "current year". I suggest increasing your coffee intake...either that, or design a macro to format dd/mm as you like it, then assign it to the key of your choice. Thus, you will save us the annoyance of feeling slightly guilty for our urge to laugh loudly and scornfully at complaints like this. On the other hand (with gleeful scorn, or scornful glee) :laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh: