Unable to sort by date in Numbers

Hi Henrik,

Instead of a custom data format, can you see this in Format Panel > Cell > Data Format?

Click on the Date Pop-Up Menu

Please call back with questions.

Regards,

Ian.

So what was the fix? I set up a simple custom data format that just includes a date in the following format: (Sep, 2016). In other words: (abbreviated month, YYYY). Which is all I need for that field. The **** application keeps defaulting/changing the cell format back to "Automatic". That's dumb an unintuitive.

The trouble arises when attempting to use any type of function or calculation with the format because it defaults to a text string. This isn't at all useful when all I want to do is calculate the number of months elapsed given that custom data format and current month.

For instance if cell C is of the custom data format "date" as (Sep, 2016) I was hoping to use a function like:

A=(MONTH(C)-MONTH(NOW())

But getting an error that cell C contains a "string"

My thought was that since Apple allows for a "custom" data format based on 'date' then the data would still be handled accordingly with any other date/time related criteria accounted for in some other way. The system should be smart enough to know that if the field/cell data is assigned a "date" then only work on the info provided.

Ho come when I log in I cannot see any new replies? yet when I log out I can see the new replie(s)?

The system should be smart enough to know that if the field/cell data is assigned a "date" then only work on the info provided.

Numbers date recognition is pretty powerful. Maybe you're asking too much? Is there a specific reason you can't use one of the (many) formats that Numbers does recognize as dates? For example 'Sep 2016' is works well here but 'Sep, 2016' (your example) does not.

SG

'Sep, 2016' isn't recognized as a date but many other strings do work. Try experimenting. Generally you're going to need year, month and day.

SG

Beautiful! Thank you so much! Now I learned something new.