Microsoft Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure & Resource Center

Product Summary

Product: Excel 95 Version: 7.0 Category: Compliant# Operating System: 32-Bit Win Language: Hebrew Release Date: N/A Operational Range: 01 Jan 1900 - 31 Dec 2078 Prerequisites: None Product Dependencies: Hebrew Windows 95/98 in both enabled and localized versions, Clock Dependencies: System clock Last Updated: 14 Oct 1999

Product Details

What are the acceptable deviations? MS Query accepts 2-digit year date formatting for the userÆs ODBC query, but assumes a twentieth century date. To avoid this issue, users should use 4-digit years for queries based upon date data. Special Notes for Hebrew version of Excel: Hebrew Excel 95 supports Hebrew Lunar calendar. Hebrew Excel 95 has the ability to parse a date into lunar Hebrew date. Day one of Gregorian (01/01/01 A.D.) is equivalent to 06-Tavis -3761 in Hebrew. Hebrew Excel 95 will try to format the date entered in a cell based on what the Short Date Style has been set to in the Control Panel and in Gregorian calendar, even if the calendar in Control Panel has been set to Hijri. Hebrew Excel 95 also has the ability to format a Gregorian date into a Hebrew date by appending the string "B2" to the beginning of the format type, e.g. applying the format B2mm/dd/yy to the Gregorian date 12/31/98 in Hebrew Excel results in the Hebrew date 12-Tavis-5759. The "B2" string is applied in the Format Cells dialog, Number tab/Custom or using the NumberFormat property of the Range object using Visual Basic for Applications. To convert back a Hebrew date back into Gregorian, the "B2" prefix is omitted.   How the product handles dates: Storage. Microsoft Excel stores dates as numeric values, with day #1 being 1900/1/1. Excel 95 recognizes 01-JAN-1900 through 31-DEC-2078 as valid dates. Formatting. When Microsoft Excel formats a date, it uses one of several default formats. If the system short date is a YYYY (4-digit year) format, when the user types a YY date (a 2-digit year entry), it will by default display in a YYYY format. Excel 95 adds 1900 or 2000 (based on 1920 cutoff) to 2-digit years. What this means is that 2-digit years that fall in the 00-19 range will be recognized as 2000-2019, while those 2-digit years that fall in the 20-99 range will be recognized as 1920-1999. When a cell is formatted with the B2 prefix Hebrew Excel 95 adds the year 5700 to a date with 2-digit year. Parsing on date entry. If a user enters a date in a Gregorian "yy-m-d" format, 00-19 is 20XX, and 20-99 is 19XX. Common date usage errors: If a date is pasted from one application to another using only the last two digits of the year, Microsoft Excel might parse the date differently than the originating application calculated it. Example: In a non-Excel application, a user has the date January 1, 1915. The user copies the date, but the system settings are "M/d/yy", and the text that is copied is "1-1-15". When the user pastes "1-1-15" into Microsoft Excel, it will parse the date to January 1, 2015. Such an error can also occur when one application is using a "M/d/yy" format while another application is using a "d/M/yy" format. This also applies to importing dates from text files. (See Knowledge Base article Q180159 for more information.) The DATE() function is not designed to take 2-digit year shortcuts, since it receives numeric parameters. The DATE() function calculates a number less than 1900 as an offset from 1900. So, if you were to enter a formula such as =DATE(15,1,1), the resulting date would be January 1, 1915, not 2015. The user cannot pass the DATE()function Hebrew year, month and day. Even if the cell is formatted with B2 prefix, Hebrew Excel 95 will calculate the Gregorian date based on the parameters passed to it and then will convert the date to the Hebrew Lunar Calendar. Recording date entry in a macro records the year in a YY (2-digit year) format, which can cause problems if the 2-digit year is not meant to follow the 1920-2019 date cutoff window that is mentioned above. Since Visual Basic for Applications macro recorder uses English settings only and not Regional Settings and since Hebrew Excel parses Lunar dates based on custom format and not based on the system calendar, it is not possible to have the recorder record a Hebrew date entry. Due to the ambiguous nature of text dates, use serial dates whenever possible and take great care when transferring text dates. Recommendations: Change the default system short date format to include a 4-digit year. Get in the habit of using 4-digit year formats for dates in Microsoft Excel. Such a practice will make the date visible if a user mistakenly enters a date in the wrong century. When dates must be transferred between applications, ideally they should be transferred as serial dates. They should never be transferred as an ambiguous text format that doesnÆt specify the century and causes confusion between month and day-of-month. For example, the text "2/1/25" could be interpreted as Feb. 1, 1925, Jan. 2, 1925, Feb. 1, 2025, or Jan. 2, 2025. To avoid confusion or miscalculations, Hebrew Excel 95 users should maintain a single type of date representation on the same sheet. If a user decides to use Hebrew dates, then they should use only Hebrew dates. Defined names store references only as text strings. Since they do not store dates as serial values, they are vulnerable to century issues when a 2-digit year format is used. Using defined names in this way is also problematic because users who use a date format with an order other than M-d-y may experience miscalculations. It is highly recommended to define the name referring to a cell containing a serial date, which will avoid both of the above-mentioned potential problems. Testing guidelines and recommendations: In general, avoid testing in a production environment or with non-duplicated production files because side effects with other products are difficult to predict. Interoperability testing with other Microsoft Office products can be conducted safely. Testing Microsoft understands that for various reasons customers may be required to conduct their own year 2000 certification testing. Microsoft provides the tests below to aid customers in conducting their own year 2000 certification of Microsoft Excel. Excel is designed to handle 2-digit year shortcuts well into the next century. Dates are stored internally, in a complete form, with full century information. Nevertheless, a user or administrator may elect to change the operating system short date format to a 4-digit display in order to avoid ambiguity when reading or transferring dates. Note that this change can affect column widths and print layout and it could require additional changes in your worksheets. If the user decides not to set the system short date format to include a 4-digit year, the user can format each cell individually by selecting Format/Cells/Number/Custom, and entering a 4-digit year format. To change the system short date format, press the Start button, then select Settings, Control Panel, Regional Settings, select the Date page, then change the Short Date Style to a format that includes a 4-digit year by replacing the "yy" portion with "yyyy". Verify that Hebrew Excel 95 transitions smoothly into the year 2000 when the Locale in Regional Settings is set to Hebrew: Warning! Before conducting this test, make sure you do not have software containing a license that expires by the year 2000. This is especially common with beta copies of software programs. If a program determines that its license has expired it is possible the program will no longer boot, even after resetting the system clock. Changing a system clock on a network can affect other computers connected to the network, so it is highly recommended that you isolate the computer from other systems before changing the system clock to conduct the following test. Set the system clock to 11:59 p.m. December 31, 1999 and then format the cell into B2dd/mm/yyyy. Start Hebrew Excel 95. In cell A1 (cell R1C1 if in R1C1 mode), enter =NOW(). After one minute, press {F9} to recalculate the formula you entered in A1. Note that the date shown will be 22/04/5760 Hebrew Lunar and nothing unusual has happened to Microsoft Excel. Remember to reset the system clock to the correct time and date after conducting this test. Verify that Microsoft Excel recognizes the year 2000 as a leap year: Start Excel. In cell A1 (cell R1C1 if in R1C1 mode), enter "=DATE(2000,2,28)+1". Note that the resulting date is February 29, indicating that Excel correctly recognizes that 2000 is a leap year. Note: The year 1900 is not a leap year. However, in testing you may notice Microsoft Excel treats 1900 as a leap year. This algorithm was adopted to maintain compatibility with dates in Lotus 1-2-3, and is by design. The calculation for leap years used by the Gregorian calendar is as follows. If a year is evenly divisible by four, it is a leap year, unless the year is evenly divisible by 100. If a year is evenly divisible by 100, it is not a leap year, unless it is also evenly divisible by 400. (See KB article Q181370 for more information.) Excel 95 uses a number of Microsoft Office 95 shared files for the implementation of dialogs and toolbars, task automation, online help, installation, graphics, file find and file I/O. For additional information that is appropriate for Excel 95, please refer either to the document for the particular Office version that this application came with, or, in the case of a standalone product, to any version 95 Microsoft Office document.

Return to Search Screen

If after reviewing this information you have additional questions related to this product, click here.

ANY MICROSOFT YEAR 2000 STATEMENTS MADE TO YOU IN THE COURSE OF PROVIDING YEAR 2000 RELATED UPDATES, YEAR 2000 DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS, OR REMEDIATION SERVICES (IF ANY) ARE SUBJECT TO THE YEAR 2000 INFORMATION AND READINESS DISCLOSURE ACT (112 STAT. 2386). IN CASE OF A DISPUTE, THIS ACT MAY REDUCE YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS REGARDING THE USE OF ANY SUCH STATEMENTS, UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED BY YOUR CONTRACT OR TARIFF.

This site is being designated as a Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure and the information contained herein is provided pursuant to the terms hereof and the Year 2000 Information and Readiness Disclosure Act.