[libreoffice-users] Re: Help with date formatting

Am 03.03.2012 14:19, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
> I have recently switched from OpenOffice to LibreOffice (version 3.5.0),
> and am having problems configuring it to handle dates in the same way.
>
> These are the problems:
>
> 1. I want to maintain a CSV file containing dates in the format
> DD/MM/YY. When I read that file into OO, the columns containing those
> dates were automatically recognized as date columns, not text columns,
> and the dates were read correctly. Is there a way to configure LO to do
> the same?
>
> For example, some typical lines at the top of the input file might look
> like
>
> "Date1","Date2","Text1","Value1","Text2","Text3","Value2","Value3","Value4"
> 02/03/12,02/03/12,"TEXT",,,"TEXT",,,-100
> 01/03/12,01/03/12,"TEXT",1,"TEXT","TEXT",,,5.95
>
> and the dates are March 2, 2012 on the first line, March 1, 2012 on the
> second.

1) OOo 3.3 and LibO have a locale setting as import option. Any locale 
setting other than English(US) might import 2/3/12 correctly. Just try 
English(UK).
2) Check the "special numbers" option which evaluates any numeric 
expression even if it is not a plain decimal.

> 2. I would also like the dates to be displayed in the same format within
> LO. Currently it thinks those lines are text, and displays them like
> that, but of course sorting fails. If I manually tell it that those are
> DMY dates when I read the file, they are displayed as YYYY-MM-DD format
> after reading. I can manually set the format to the user defined
> DD/MM/YY format, but it doesn't display that way in the data entry line,
> it displays as YYYY-MM-DD format.

This is impossible to do by means of direct text import. Calc 
interpretes the incoming raw text data according to your import settings 
and enters the resulting values into a brand new unformatted sheet. CSV 
includes raw data for data exchange between database applications.
1) With the help of the Base component you can import the raw data into 
preformatted sheets.
2) You may use the built-in database engine to create a customized edit 
form for your particular flavour of csv where the entered data always 
produce a specified flavour of csv.
3) I use to recommend this tiny but extremely useful text editor for 
csv: http://csved.sjfrancke.nl/

> 3. If I manually enter a date into a cell, I would like the same thing
> to happen. Currently if I type 02/03/12 as data, it is converted to the
> date 2002-03-12.
Nothing wrong with the ISO format as long as the value is the same as 
intended value. You are free to apply any locale setting (globally or 
document specific) and any number formatting you like. This has no 
effect on your cell values.

> 4. If I write that CSV file back out to CSV, I would like it to maintain
> the same DD/MM/YY format.

A calculator is definitively not the most appropriate tool to edit and 
write database data.

> I suspect all of this could be fixed if I could find some localization
> setting that says dates are by default formatted as DD/MM/YY on both
> input and output, but I can't find that setting. Is there such a thing?
>
> Duncan Murdoch

1) Tools>Options>LanguageSettings>Languages: "Locale Setting". This is 
the default for all numerals in the entire suite, including brand new 
unformatted sheets.
2) Cell Stlye "Default", number format locale: overrides the locale for 
all dependent cell styles of this document. Does not affect brand new 
unformatted sheets.
3) Number format locale of any other cell style: Overrides the locale 
for a certain type of formatted cells.
4) Hard formatting the number format locale menu:Format>Cells... 
overrides all styles for the current cell selection

But the last 4 points do not override the general concept that raw text 
data get imported into a completely unformatted new sheet. In this 
particular case the global locale setting "English(UK)" may tweak that 
unformatted new sheet so it meets your requirement.



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