XL97: Formula Errors Appear After Updating PivotTable

• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you update a PivotTable, formulas that refer to a date in the PivotTable return an error value.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when all of the following conditions are true:

• You open a workbook that was created in an earlier version of Microsoft Excel.

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• The workbook includes a PivotTable that contains dates.

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• You use formulas that explicitly refer to those dates.

   Article-ID: Q109420
   TITLE     : XL: Dates in Pivot Table May Be Converted into Text

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, edit the formula to refer to the date as a date value instead of a text value. For example, retype the following lookup formula

   =VLOOKUP("7/25/59",$D$1:$G$10,4)

   =VLOOKUP(DateValue("7/25/59"),$D$1:$G$10,4)

MORE INFORMATION

In earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, dates in a PivotTable are automatically formatted as text. This means that if you reformat a cell that contains a date with a number format, the format in the cell is reset to a text number format when you update the PivotTable. However, Microsoft Excel 97 allows you to use rich text formatting in a PivotTable, including dates.

Microsoft Excel 97 automatically formats any date in a PivotTable with a date format. This is an enhanced formatting feature and is different from earlier versions of Microsoft Excel. Therefore, a formula that refers to a date that uses the text format in a PivotTable returns an incorrect result or an error value, such as the #N/A or #VALUE! value.