[Solved] Date 3/4/26 becomes ¾/26

[Mhilinski1]

I am working on a spreadsheet and when i type 3/4/26 as the date for example it creates the wrong date why ?

Edit: 2026-03-12: Changed subject, was Dates  Make your post understandable by others  Your post didn't explain what occurred when you typed 3/4/26 so it was difficult for anyone to help you. All you said was that the date was wrong. However saying wrong is no help at all. In a forum,you need to explain what you did, what happened, and what you expected instead. And you didn't respond to questions from people trying to help you. It's no wonder it took many days to get an answer. -- MrProgrammer, forum moderator

[FJCC]

Possibly your locale is not what you expect, but it's hard to say without more information. Do you expect 3/4/26 to be March 4, 2026, or April 3, 2026? What date is appearing when you enter 3/4/26?
If you go to the menu Tools -> Options, expand the Language Settings list on the left and pick Languages, what is the Locale Settings?

[Mhilinski1]

I will check under tools options

[Mhilinski1]

I looked under tools options Language settings and i unchecked the box and it is still doing the same thing for example March 7, 2026

[RoryOF]

A quick solution: enter your dates in a more explicit format, such as 07 March 2026, or (better) use YYYY-MM-DD, and get the lot of advantages of the globally standardized format (ISO 8601).

[FJCC]

I looked under tools options Language settings and i unchecked the box and it is still doing the same thing for example March 7, 2026

I don't know what you unchecked. The Locale Setting is a drop down list and I want to know what yours is set to. Mine says Default - English (USA).
I don't know of any way to enter 3/4/26 and get a result of March 7, 2026. Let's try an experiment. Enter the number 46088 in a cell. With that cell selected, go to the menu Format -> Cells. Choose the Numbers tab and set the Category to Date. Click OK. What date is displayed in the cell?

Please upload a file where you have entered 3/4/26 in a cell and gotten the wrong date displayed. To upload a file, click Post Reply and look for the Attachments tab just below the box where you type a response.

[Mhilinski1]

I will try what you suggested and see if that works

[Mhilinski1]

I tryed what you suggested it didn't make any difference

[FJCC]

I made three requests in my last post and "it didn't make any difference" isn't an answer to any of them. Here are my three requests:

The Locale Setting is a drop down list and I want to know what yours is set to. Mine says Default - English (USA).

Enter the number 46088 in a cell. With that cell selected, go to the menu Format -> Cells. Choose the Numbers tab and set the Category to Date. Click OK. What date is displayed in the cell?

Please upload a file where you have entered 3/4/26 in a cell and gotten the wrong date displayed.

[Mhilinski1]

ok i will upload the file

[Mhilinski1]

I have uploaded the spreadsheet called sp1readsheet.xls I also typed in som`e dates and there you will see the incorrect date.

[FJCC]

There is no file attached to your reply. To upload a file, click Post Reply, scroll down to the Attachments tab and click on it, click on the Add Files button. That will open a dialog where you can select a file. Navigate to the file and click on it. Click on the Open button, then submit your reply.

You also did not respond to my two other requests.

[Mhilinski1]

There i have attached the file

[MrProgrammer]

There i have attached the file

Thank you for the attachment. You might have been able to get a solution much sooner if you had attached your file right away. Review these topics. Calc won't change 3/4/2026 to ¾/2026 after you update your AutoCorrect settings. Since cell B5's value was entered before you did that, it can only be corrected by re-entering the date.
[Solved] 3/4 typed in cell is converted to ¾
[Solved] Date 3/4 it appears as a tiny number ¾

If this solved your problem please go to your first post use the Edit ✏️ button and add [Solved] to the start of the Subject field. Select the green checkmark icon at the same time.

[Tutorial] Ten concepts that every Calc user should know

[morchat]

Open the "AutoCorrect" window (Tools -> AutoCorrect Options...") and delete the line with the entry replacing the string 3/4 with ¾. If you want to keep the option of inserting this code, replace the entry 3/4, e.g. with '3/4.

[Mhilinski1]

Thank you for the reply I will try that out. and let you know