User profile for user: Bru-Hed
Bru-Hed Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

Numbers changing fields to "0"

Hello! OS 10.14.6:

I have a basic spreadsheet in Numbers that I am using for securities trading records, with various dates, words and dollar amounts in different fields. However, when I enter an assortment of dates, such as "12/19,21,22", as soon as I leave the field, Numbers changes it to just a "0." This is incredibly frustrating. (Only way around it is to add the word "or" or "and" between any of the numbers, but that takes up more room/time than necessary.)


What am I doing wrong and/or how can I get around this?


Thanks very much, community!

iMac, OS X 10.10

Posted on Dec 28, 2021 12:21 AM

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User profile for user: Yellowbox
Yellowbox
User level: Level 7
21,633 points

Posted on Dec 28, 2021 1:33 AM

Hi Bru-Hed,


What do you want to achieve by putting 3 dates ("12/19,21,22") in one cell?

The slash (/) tells Numbers that it is a fraction. I don't know what Numbers makes of the commas.


The value (as a decimal number) is 0.0000624...



Format the cells as text before you type or paste the dates.



Regards,

Ian.



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User profile for user: Yellowbox
Yellowbox
User level: Level 7
21,633 points

Dec 28, 2021 1:33 AM in response to Bru-Hed

Hi Bru-Hed,


What do you want to achieve by putting 3 dates ("12/19,21,22") in one cell?

The slash (/) tells Numbers that it is a fraction. I don't know what Numbers makes of the commas.


The value (as a decimal number) is 0.0000624...



Format the cells as text before you type or paste the dates.



Regards,

Ian.



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User profile for user: Badunit
Badunit
User level: Level 7
29,406 points

Dec 28, 2021 1:47 AM in response to Bru-Hed

The actual value in the cell is 6.246E-05. Numbers is interpreting your input as the fraction 12/192122 and doing the math for you.


Your entries are not "dates" as defined by Numbers, they are text. Pre-format the columns as text and you can enter whatever you want without Numbers interpreting it as anything but text.


For singular entries in cells not pre-formatted as text, you can preface the entry with an apostrophe like '12/19,21,22 and it will treat the entry as text. The apostrophe will be removed.

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User profile for user: Bru-Hed
Bru-Hed Author
User level: Level 1
10 points

Dec 29, 2021 2:48 PM in response to Yellowbox

Thanks, Ian!

I am using a series of dates. In my example, it would stand for December 19th, 21st or 22nd. I thought the cells were agnostic--some of them have text and some numbers so I figured I could put in whatever I want without having them automatically altered, as I do in other software. (Obviously I am naive.)


Best,

Mike

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Numbers changing fields to "0"

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