Converting numbers to a date

[Gesina11]

Hello

Is there way to STOP OpenOffice calc to stop converting numbers to a date?
Now if I put a number combination in a field like 20-1 with almost every divider like -/ _ etc. it will be converted to a date, if the numbers are within the 31 day's and 12 month range.

Regards Gesina11

[Villeroy]

Enter your data as text.

[acknak]

If you have only a few cells to enter, you can flag the entries as text by typing a single-quote ' before the entry: '20-1

If you have a whole range of cells, use Format > Cell > Numbers and set the cell format to "Text" before you enter anything.

[nancyfromafrica]

what i usually try to do is goto format cell and convert each cell to the default value in which i want it to appear, it would be nice if calc does not manipulate the data

[kingfisher]

Date recognition is a feature which I believe is provided by all spreadsheet software.

[Villeroy]

what i usually try to do is goto format cell and convert each cell to the default value in which i want it to appear, it would be nice if calc does not manipulate the data

It "manipulates" your data when you enter the character "1" into a cell. It recognizes that you want to enter a number and treats your input as a numeric value 1 rather than character "1" (in computer bits: 00000001 rather than 00110001).
It has to do so because otherwise it could not be a spreadsheet anymore. It is not a software fault that 90% of today's users try so desparately using it as a poor database or as a text table editor.
When I enter some recent dates into sheet cells I expect that 21/ enters this month's 21st day and 21/3 enters this year's 21st of March.
[Tutorial] Ten concepts that every Calc user should know

[Gesina11]

Thanks for your sugestions, but it comes down to the point when I want to put in a number that might be a date it is a date, and if I still want to enter it I have to change it into someting else.
I hate computers/programs that think that they are clever, there is no such thing, a computer is the dumbest thing ever made, its ony a bit faster in being dumb than we are.
You can switch almost everything on and of, why not the date conversion, I can not understand that someone ever thought of that, it is is simple put and extra line that says automatic date conversion on or of with a box next to it that you can cross, why do you have to do all kind of tricks to to put a numerical value in witout having to think, it might be seen as a date.
The way the program works now is for a bookkeeper or an accountant, who has to put in a lot of dates, I have worked a lot with dBase 2 and dBase 3+, you could designate a field there for what it was intended to be used for, why is that so hard to do, it is a computerprogramm, you can let these things do almost anything.
I started working with computer with a C/PM machine, for the younger one's C/PM is what Bill Gates used to create MS-DOS and that he used again to make windows, one day when the new MS-DOS machines where bussy taking over I asked a computer proffesional "Why DOS over C/PM" and he said, if you want up to date software take MS-DOS, if you want to run your lawnmower of a computer take C/PM because there is somwhere a geek that made some software to do so.
Nothing personal here but I had to get it of my chest, why dificult when you can do it easy, and not the other way around.
Regards Rudy

[acknak]

We all know how you feel.

if you have a quantity of data to enter that you don't want Calc to be clever with, then change the cell format to "Text" beforehand. That's how you turn off the automatic interpretation.

If you never want Calc to interpret anything, then change the default cell format to "Text".

There's no way to turn off only date interpretation (as far as I know); I imagine that it's far more common for people to want to enter dates easily than to enter something that looks like a date but isn't.

[Gesina11]

I have tought of that but I want my numbers to be numbers so I can manipulate them.
But than why only a designation for text, make an option also for making a row or collumn for dates and numbers and hatever you want to put into it.
I work now a 64bit machine so my old and trusted dBase is not working anymore, it's stil a DOS program, so I have to work with a spreadsheet now.

[kingfisher]

How is 20-1 a number?

[Gesina11]

my mistake.
if I do 20.1 it converts it into 20-01-12

[Hagar Delest]

Related topic: [Issue] No "Off" Option for Automatic Date Changes.

[kingfisher]

Check your settings in Tools > Options > Language Settings > Languages (particularly "Decimal separator key"), also (if the settings there are correct), check the language specified for the style used for that cell (F11, right-click style name, select Modify and look at the Numbers tab, finally Format > Cells (the number tab again).

[Olly]

right click on cell
-->uncheck 'Number Recognition'

[jrkrideau]

The way the program works now is for a bookkeeper or an accountant, who has to put in a lot of dates,

This is not surprising since accountants and bookers were , I believe, the original intend target audience for spreadsheets. The give-away is it the name. Accountants used paper spreadsheets for centuries.

[Villeroy]

right click on cell
-->uncheck 'Number Recognition'

This is a Calc topic. "Number Recognition" can be turned off in Writer tables.
In Calc spreadsheets you format the cells as text before data entry.

my mistake.
if I do 20.1 it converts it into 20-01-12

We still don't know what 20.1 is supposed to be. If you mean the English number 20.1 (twenty plus one tenth) you can enter 20,1 with a comma as decimal separator according to your system locale. You can also format the cells as English, Chinese, Swiss or Japanese and enter 20.1 or you can set your global locale to English, Chinese, Swiss or Japanese. If you do not modify any setting and your system locale is something like German, 20.1 is just another way to enter 20th of this year's January.

[Lupp]

... if I do 20.1 it converts it into 20-01-12 ...

We still don't know what 20.1 is supposed to be.

This is due to the setting in Options>Language Settings>Languages>Date acceptance patterns
If there exists an entry "D.M" an input like "20.1" is recognised (guessed) to mean the 20th day of the 1st month of the current year. It will then be converted into the appropriate integer number. (As the original post in this topic was created in 2012 this number is 40928.) One won't see this number. Recognised as a date it will be displayed in the standard date format (depending on locale) or in the explicitly set number format of the cell. Much room for malfunction and for funny effects.

[acknak]

... This is due to the setting in Options>Language Settings>Languages>Date acceptance patterns ...

It seems that option is only available in LibreOffice. I don't see it in AOO 4.1.