Article ID: 182766
Article Last Modified on 11/23/2006
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Excel 95 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 95a
- Microsoft Excel 5.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 5.0c
- Microsoft Excel 5.0 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 5.0 for Macintosh
- Microsoft Excel 5.0a for Macintosh
This article was previously published under Q182766
SYMPTOMS
In the versions of Microsoft Excel listed at the beginning of this article,
if you enter a date in a cell while you are recording a Visual Basic for
Applications macro, the macro may incorrectly enter the date when you run
the macro.
Specifically, the date may be in the wrong century; for example, instead of
1/1/2020, the date appears as 1/1/1920.
CAUSE
This problem occurs because, when you enter a date while recording a macro,
the recorded code contains a two-digit year number instead of a four-digit
year number. For example, the recorded code is similar to the following:
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "1/1/20"
When you execute this line of code, Excel inserts the date into
the cell as the two-digit year number, 20. As a result, the date falls
between 1920 and 2019. This behavior occurs regardless of the date you
actually entered in the cell while recording the macro.
For additional information about how Excel works with two-digit year numbers, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
302768
How Microsoft Excel works with two-digit year numbers
WORKAROUND
Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either
expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes
that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the
tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can
help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not
modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to
meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may
want to contact a Microsoft Certified Partner or the Microsoft fee-based
consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about Microsoft Certified
Partners, please visit the following Microsoft Web site:
For more information about the support options that are available and about how to contact Microsoft, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
To work around this problem, modify the recorded code. For example, if the
line of code is the following
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "1/1/20"
change it to the following:
ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "1/1/2020" 'January 1, 2020
After you do this, the code inserts the correct date into the active cell
when you run the macro.
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
Additional query words: XL5 XL7 y2k year2000 1919 1920 1929 1930 2019 2020 2029 2030
Keywords: kbbug KB182766