Microsoft KB Archive Search

Notice: This website is an unofficial Microsoft Knowledge Base (hereinafter KB) archive and is intended to provide a reliable access to deleted content from Microsoft KB. All KB articles are owned by Microsoft Corporation. Read full disclaimer for more details.

  1. Home
  2. How to enter Hijri date on Microsoft Excel XP (2002).

How to enter Hijri date on Microsoft Excel XP (2002).

View products that this article applies to.

Summary

In Microsoft Excel , to use the date in Hijri Format some settings are needed to be applied.

↑ Back to the top

More information

  • The earliest date allowed for calculation is January 1, 1900 (January 1, 1904, if 1904 date system is used).
  • The user need to apply special setting before entering the date in Hijri format, because entering wrong date format will cause to have wrong sorting and to get invalid results. The Excel sheet accepts typing the Gregorian date and it can interpreted it as Hijri date, (according to the setting that you applied in the Cell Format).
  • Without applying the setting, Excel 2002, will try to handle the Hijri date that you entered as Gregorian date, which is not applicable, because the earliest date allowed for calculation is January 1, 1900 (January 1, 1904, if 1904 date system is used). For example Excel will handle the Hijri date 9/25/1420 (this is Gregorian date 1/1/2000), but it can't handle the Gregorian date 9/25/1420 because is too early than January 1, 1900 (or January 1, 1904, if 1904 date system is used).

↑ Back to the top

The following steps show how we can custom the date in the cells, to be interpreted in Hijri format, also we will describe how we can enter a date in Hijri format in a cell.

  • Create a custom number format.
    1. On the Format menu, click Cells, and then click the Number tab.
    2. Select Custom from the list of number categories.
    3. Select a number format code as a starting point for your date format. (dd/mm/yyyy).
    4. In the Type box, do one of the following:
      1. To display dates using the Gregorian calendar, regardless of the Regional Options or Regional Settings of the Microsoft Windows Control Panel setting, type B1 before the date format code � for example, B1dd/mm/yy.
      2. When Arabic editing is enabled, to display dates using the Hijri calendar, regardless of the Regional Options or Regional Settings setting, type B2 before the date format code � for example, B2dd/mm/yy.
  • Enter a date in a cell and have Excel interpret it as a Hijri date instead of Gregorian.

    To enter Hijri date, type A or a in front of the date entry � for example, enter the short date 'a9/25/20', which will be interpreted as Hijri date 9/25/1420 (this is Gregorian date 1/1/2000). If the cell is unformatted, it will be assigned the number format 'B2m/d/yyyy' and the value will be displayed as 9/25/1420.

    Note Your regional settings affect how Excel rceognize the day, month and year parts of the value entered. For example, when using English (United States) regional settings, you should enter the Hijri value as 'a9/25/20'. when using Arabic (Egypt) regional settings, you should enter the Hijri value as 'a25/9/20' .

↑ Back to the top

Keywords: KB884663, kbbidi, kblangsupparabic, kbhowto

↑ Back to the top

Article Info
Article ID : 884663
Revision : 2
Created on : 8/25/2008
Published on : 8/25/2008
Exists online : False
Views : 212