Number Format Altered When Entering New Values

[drewesy2]

Hi there!

I'm not sure if you'll have any suggestions for me but I have a strange
problem which is causing me a lot of grief. I'm working on a project for a
course which involves manipulating data to create a cost-efficient feeding
programme for rural India.

Every time I enter a data interval (such as 5-9 or 10-14) it automatically
changes this value to a date, saying it is a 'custom format' value. Even if I
am in the 'general format' number mode, this still happens. If I try to
change it back to a general value, it changes to some long, weird number
(like 406690)?

I have tried everything I can think of, and nothing seems to be working.

Please let me know if you have any solutions, thanks!

 

[Jeanette Cunningham]

This is the sort of thing that happens in excel. Are you saying that this is
happening in an access database?

Jeanette Cunningham MS Access MVP -- Melbourne Victoria Australia

 

[Golfinray]

You will probably have to change the datatype in your table to text.

 

[John Spencer]

This sounds like an Excel question. If so, try typing an apostrophe '
before you enter 5-9. That will tell Excel that you want the entry to
be considered text. Otherwise, the program will think you are entering
a date in abbreviated format. If you remove the formatting, then the
day number will be shown - that is the number of days that have elapsed
since Dec 31 1899 (or some other zero date).

'====================================================
John Spencer
Access MVP 2002-2005, 2007-2009
The Hilltop Institute
University of Maryland Baltimore County
'====================================================