Why Copy & Paste formula not work?

D

dindigul

In A1 I type 4/28/07. In B1 I type A1+5 and get 5/3/2007. However if I copy
it & paste in F13, I get 1/5/1900 wherein I see E13 as the base cell which
is empty. What is the basis of this value?
Can any one explain?
Thanks
 
D

Dave Peterson

The underlying value in that F13 cell is 5. If you format the cell as General,
you'll see the 5.

But if you format the cell as a date, it's the 5th day after December 31, 1899.
Which is January 5th, 1900.
 
B

Beege

dindigul said:
In A1 I type 4/28/07. In B1 I type A1+5 and get 5/3/2007. However if I copy
it & paste in F13, I get 1/5/1900 wherein I see E13 as the base cell which
is empty. What is the basis of this value?
Can any one explain?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Not formatted....

Thinks 4 divided by 28 divided by 7?

Not much help, huh?

Beege
 
D

dindigul

You mean the base value was December 31, 1899? Immaterial to where I paste
it? Why does it point to an empty cell E13? When cell reference changes, it
should have some basis. Any ideas?
Thanks
 
P

Peo Sjoblom

What do you expect to get?

It's because you use relative cell referencing, if you want A1+5 use =$A$1+5
in B1
E13 is to F13 what A1 is to B1 (one cell to the left) and since E13 is empty
you get 0+5 which is 5 and you are pasting the date format from B1 and Dave
explained the date system which actually starts with Jan 0 1900 not Dec 31
1988


--
Regards,

Peo Sjoblom



dindigul said:
You mean the base value was December 31, 1899? Immaterial to where I paste
it? Why does it point to an empty cell E13? When cell reference changes,
it should have some basis. Any ideas?
Thanks
Click to expand...
 
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