XL98: Date Returned in a Macro Is Four Years Too Early

• Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition

SYMPTOMS

When you run a macro that uses a date from a worksheet cell, the date returned by the macro may be four years and one day earlier than the actual date.

CAUSE

A macro returns a date that is four years and one day earlier when you select 1904 Date System in the Calculation tab of the Preferences dialog box, and when one of the following conditions is true:

• The Visual Basic variable is declared as Date by using the DIM statement.


-and-


• The macro uses a worksheet function in the Microsoft Excel application library when it stores the date.


-or-


• The macro uses the Value2 property when it stores the date.

WORKAROUND

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1. Start Microsoft Excel 98, and open a new workbook.



2. On the Tools menu, click Preferences, and then click the Calculation tab.



3. Under Workbook Options, click to select the 1904 Date System check box. Click OK.



4. Type the following dates in Sheet1:

   A1: 1/1/95




5. On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and click Visual Basic Editor. On the Insert menu of the Visual Basic Editor, click Module.



6. Type the following code into the module sheet:

   
      Sub GetDates1()
       ' The variables must be declared as Date and the Date system
       ' must be set to 1904 to display the problem
   
       Dim DateCell As Date, DateApp As Date, DateValue2 As Date
   
       'Value property always works correctly
       DateCell = Range("a1").Value 'Using Value property
       DateApp = Application.Max(Range("a1:a3")) 'Using an Application
                                                 'function
   
       DateValue2 = Range("a1").Value2 'Using the Value2 property
   
          Range("c1") = DateCell
          Range("d1") = " Value property"
   
          Range("c2") = DateApp
          Range("d2") = " Application.Max"
   
          Range("c3") = DateValue2
          Range("d3") = " Value2 property"
   
      End Sub 




7. On the File menu, click Close And Return to Microsoft Excel.



8. On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Macros.



9. Select GetDates1 and click Run.

   C1: 1/1/95   D1: Value Property
   C2: 12/31/90 D2: Application.Max
   C3: 12/31/90 D3: Value2 Property 

   Dim DateCell As Date, DateApp As Date, DateValue2 As Date 

to

   Dim DateCell As Variant, DateApp As Variant, DateValue2 As Variant 

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Visual Basic for Applications does not automatically detect the 1904 date system and convert the date as necessary. If a user selects the 1904 date system in Microsoft Excel, and runs a macro that reads a date from a worksheet cell, the difference may be four years and one day (the extra one day accounts for the leap year). For example, a date of 9/1/96 in the 1904 date system may return a date of 8/31/92.

The Value2 property is a new property in Visual Basic that you can use in Microsoft Office 98. The Value2 property stores variables in the same way as the Value property except that it does not use the Currency or Date data types.

REFERENCES

For more information about the 1904 date system, click Contents And Index on the Help menu (or on the Balloon Help menu if you are using a version of the Macintosh operating system earlier than 8.0), click the Index button in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text

1900/1904 date system

Additional query words: XL98 vba

Keywords : kbprg kbdta xlvbainfo OffVBA
Version : MACINTOSH:98
Platform : MACINTOSH
Issue type : kbbug