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Best answer

When MS Excel receives the information, it stores it as a string and not the usual “48587” format it uses to store date data.

  • November 30, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 207 views
Adeliand
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Hello all, 

 

I have a problem sending dates to an Excel spreadsheet, which would later be used as data for a pivot table. 

I have an app that sends infos such as date and time of delivery, and I know how to format this incoming data to something Excel can understand, such as 30/11/2022 (I work from France where date formatting is different).

Problem is, when Excel receives the information, it stores it as a string and not the usual “48587” format it uses to store date data.

It eventually means that my pivot tables don’t work the way I want them to, as I can’t sort anything by dates (Excel has an option to sort by “last month”, “next week”, etc that I want to use). 

 

Bottom point is, Is there a way to make Zapier send dates data in a way Excel would recognize instantly ? like the 45848 or whatever ? 

 

Thanks a lot!

Best answer by Adeliand

Unfortunately it doesn’t work, because Excel has its own way of storing dates, and doesn’t understand timestamps. 

 

I found a way to work around this, by using the =DATEVALUE() function is my outgoing data. 

 

Instead of feeding Excel with raw dates, I just put the string I get from a formater straight into the formula, like so :

 

Right now it seems to do the trick, but I will have to check tomorrow if this formula returns the first of December instead of January 12th, then it would become a regional formatting problem

This post has been closed for comments. Please create a new post if you need help or have a question about this topic.

4 replies

MohSwellam
Zapier Orchestrator & Solution Partner
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  • MohSwellamZapier Orchestrator & Solution Partner
  • Zapier Orchestrator & Solution Partner
  • 902 replies
  • November 30, 2022

Hi @Adeliand 

 

Yes there is, you can use the Formatter by Zapier and choose the format you want there. You can use the X format if you want. 

Founder of GeekyAir.com
Adeliand
Forum|alt.badge.img
  • AdeliandBeginner
  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 3 replies
  • Answer
  • November 30, 2022

Unfortunately it doesn’t work, because Excel has its own way of storing dates, and doesn’t understand timestamps. 

 

I found a way to work around this, by using the =DATEVALUE() function is my outgoing data. 

 

Instead of feeding Excel with raw dates, I just put the string I get from a formater straight into the formula, like so :

 

Right now it seems to do the trick, but I will have to check tomorrow if this formula returns the first of December instead of January 12th, then it would become a regional formatting problem

Liz_Roberts
Forum|alt.badge.img+8
  • Liz_RobertsZapier Staff
  • Zapier Staff
  • 1366 replies
  • December 1, 2022

Nice workaround @Adeliand 👏🏽 Curious how the date appeared today, December 1? 

Adeliand
Forum|alt.badge.img
  • AdeliandBeginner
  • Author
  • Beginner
  • 3 replies
  • December 1, 2022

Amazingly, it works!

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