Date 2 Date - # of days

[thosp]

For about 10 years i have been entering utility usage data in the same spreadsheet, with each month’s bill on a separate line. Recently I updated LibreOffice from an earlier version to 7.6.

All this time I have used the # of days difference by subtracting the old date from the new date (=A116-A115) to determine the elapsed days. Simple and expedient.

With 7.6 that does NOT work any more and I need help, hopefully as easy as ever.

I am 82 and the ole brain isn’t a sharp and quick as it used to be.

Any ideas, Please.

[JohnSUN]

Welcome back!
Do you mean that the number of days calculated is wrong? Perhaps you are misled by the date format - you think that 08/11/23 is November 8, and Calc thinks that it is about August 11. Or does the formula not want to calculate anything at all? In this case, press Ctrl+F8 and look at the color of the font in the cells with dates - perhaps at some point they became simple text similar to a date.

[Villeroy]

Works for me: topic97950.ods (22.1 KB)

[thosp]

Greetings and thanks for responding,

See the attached. the “Insert Date” function CORRECTLY inserted today’s date. When I tried to edit the date, the date changed color - from blue to black even though the ‘Format Cells’ popup shows that info IS A DATE???

Cheers

[JohnSUN]

Yes, this is an extremely unpleasant mistake. We may be able to fix this very quickly. Can I ask you for one more screenshot? I’m interested in this your office suite setup option - Tools - Options - Language Settings - Languages

[thosp]

Here you go! See Attached.

[JohnSUN]

Thanks, this really explains the reason for the misunderstanding. When you MANUALLY enter (correct) the date for 10/19/2023, Calc sees two slashes and numbers and tries to convert them into a date exactly according to the day-month-year pattern. Since there is no month with number 19, Calc turns them into a text string. Please change the template from D/M/Y;D/M to M/D/Y;M/D and try re-entering the date in the erroneous, black cell.

[thosp]

Thank you, that cured the date problem!

Look at this last attachment to see the results of and earlier problem. It really helps to kick the adult children out of the house!