Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: converting txt to dates

Hi !

Now you happened to use the wrong conversion function, VALUE instead of 
DATEVALUE, so of course it did not work. But even with the correct 
function there seems to be some issues. According to the help text for 
the date acceptance pattern: besides local ways to write date, also the 
ISO standard is supported. This standard says that dates are written, 
like all numbers in the decimal system, with most significant values to 
the left and least significant figures to the right. Hence dates are 
written "YYYY-MM-DD". I tested this in my computer and it worked very 
well. Conversely I had no success with the format DD/MM/YYYY despite I 
had introduced this as a pattern.

I also tested some string manipulation to convert the string like this
=DATEVALUE(CONCATENATE(RIGHT(A1,4),"-",MID(A1,4,2),"-",LEFT(A,2)))
and that worked fine too. However this is much the same as using the 
DATE function, proposed earlier by you Andreas:
    =DATE(RIGHT(A1,4),MID(A1,4,2),LEFT(A1,2))

BUT! wrong! The DATE function converts numbers into a date value, so you 
have to convert the strings into numbers. Thus:
    =DATE(VALUE(RIGHT(A4,4)),VALUE(MID(A4,4,2)),VALUE(LEFT(A4,2)))

Regarding DATEVALUE, it converts a string into a date value, but you 
have to take care of the date format if you do not use ISO. So you have 
to define the date pattern,
    (menu) - Tools - Language Settings - Languages at "Date acceptance 
patterns".

Already Miguel Ángel pointed this out, that the fields in the date could 
be wrong, e.g. English (USA), and he was right.
I have not succeeded in modifying the pattern field directly, despite 
this should be possible according to help. But to change the "Local 
setting" three lines above worked fine. Now the default setting in this 
field is "English (USA)" with the attached pattern M/D/Y while we need 
D/M/Y. This is the standard for English (UK). With this done, all worked 
fine for me in my testing.

Regarding the setting (menu) - Format - Cells: This applies just for the 
"converted" cell, how the date shall be presented, and there you can 
chose anything you want, the default English (UK) (which you chose 
above), German (Germany) which gives the ISO standard, or anything you 
want. This formatting must not be applied to the cell where the original 
date is (e.g. cell A1). That cell should be formatted as text.

Kaj

Am 2015-03-24 02:16, Andreas Säger schrieb:
> Am 20.03.2015 um 12:21 schrieb Kaj:
> > > No, this won't work. You've got to change the global locale option in
> > > order to change the evaluation context for existing data.
> > >
> > > Other method: =DATE(RIGHT(A1,4),MID(A1,4,2),LEFT(A1,2))
> > Do you have the used date pattern defined? Look at (menu) - Tools -
> > Language Settings - Languages at "Date acceptance patterns".
> OK, I installed the latest LibreOffice and tested
> =VALUE("20-03-1999") => Err:502 (invalid argument)
> Then I added date pattern D-M-Y which did not change anything.
>
> The one and only relevant setting for the conversion of already existing
> text is the global application locale above "date acceptance patterns"
> in the language options.


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