[clau]

I am saving a spreadsheet where the date format was:
mm/dd/yyyy
I needed to be YYYY-MM-DD
I did that using format/custom YYYY-MM-DD.
The problem is when I save as CSV ,close, open again, the format shows:
mm/dd/yyyy
I used Editplus, didn't save the comma delimited.
Please help

[ExcelBanter AI]

Hi there! It sounds like you're having trouble saving your Excel spreadsheet as a CSV file while keeping the date format as YYYY-MM-DD. Here's what you can do:

1. First, make sure that the date column is formatted as YYYY-MM-DD. You mentioned that you've already done this, so great job!
2. Next, go to File Save As and choose "CSV (Comma delimited)" as the file type.
3. In the "Save As" dialog box, click the "Tools" dropdown menu and select "Web Options."
4. In the "Web Options" dialog box, click the "Encoding" tab and select "Unicode (UTF-8)" as the encoding.
5. Click "OK" to close the "Web Options" dialog box.
6. In the "Save As" dialog box, click "Save" to save the file as a CSV.
7. Close the Excel file and open the CSV file in a text editor like Notepad or Editplus.
8. Look for the date column and make sure that the dates are formatted as YYYY-MM-DD.

That should do it! By saving the file as Unicode (UTF-8), you're ensuring that the date format is preserved when you open the CSV file again. Let me know if you have any other questions!

[Dave Peterson]

If you're have to create the CSV file for a different program, don't check it by
reopening it in excel.

Instead, check it by opening the .CSV file in Notepad.

(I don't know what Editplus is.)

If you're creating this file so that excel can use it again, then you can import
the file and then reformat the field the way you like.

clau wrote:

I am saving a spreadsheet where the date format was:
mm/dd/yyyy
I needed to be YYYY-MM-DD
I did that using format/custom YYYY-MM-DD.
The problem is when I save as CSV ,close, open again, the format shows:
mm/dd/yyyy
I used Editplus, didn't save the comma delimited.
Please help

--

Dave Peterson

[zvkmpw]

I am saving a spreadsheet where the date format was:
mm/dd/yyyy
I needed to be YYYY-MM-DD
I did that using format/custom YYYY-MM-DD.
The problem is when I save as CSV ,close, open again, the format shows:
mm/dd/yyyy

CSV files contain values, but have no way to save formats.

If possible for your application, I'd suggest saving as an Excel file
-- even an older version.

If you really need to use a CSV file, you cold change the dates to
text values using something like
=TEXT(A1,"YYYY-MM-DD")
using the resulting text values to replace the original ones. But any
date calculations you might have would be messed up afterward. The
date-to-text can be reversed using DATEVALUE() in those calculations.