Word 2003 DateValue oddity (Run-time error '13' )

[ChrisGreaves]

I find this a mild mixture of annoyance and amusement.

datevalue("June 1943") returns me "06/01/1943 "
But
datevalue("1943") returns me a Run-time error '13'

Microsoft will guess at the first day of the month,
But not the first month of an apparent year.
Perhaps their (design) logic was that with a sub-string like "June" present there can be little doubt that w ehave a date string here, but that a 4-digit string is just too chancy to guess the first month of the year.

[HansV]

Perhaps their (design) logic was that with a sub-string like "June" present there can be little doubt that w ehave a date string here, but that a 4-digit string is just too chancy to guess the first month of the year.

Correct - DateValue only works with strings that Windows recognizes as dates according to your system settings.

You will see comparable behavior when you enter June 1943 or 1943 in a cell in an Excel worksheet. The former will be recognized as a valid date, the latter will be seen as a number.

[ChrisGreaves]

Correct - DateValue only works with strings that Windows recognizes as dates according to your system settings.

Code: Select all

?datevalue("Christmas 1983")