Because the rules that govern the way any calculation program interprets dates are complex, you should be as specific as possible about dates whenever you enter them. This will produce the highest level of accuracy when Microsoft Access processes dates.
How Access interprets ambiguous dates When interpreting ambiguous dates, Access makes certain assumptions. For example, when you enter a date that includes only the month and one or two digits, Access assumes that 1 through 31 is the day and that the year is the current year. For example, Access assumes that December 01 is December 1 of the current year, not December of the year 2001. Access assumes that December 32 is December 1, 1932.
How Access interprets two-digit years In datasheets and edit controls, Access interprets dates that are entered with an abbreviated year format to mean the twenty-first century in the following way:
| Date range for abbreviated year format | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| 1/1/00 through 12/31/29 | 1/1/2000 through 12/31/2029 |
| 1/1/30 through 12/31/99 | 1/1/1930 through 12/31/1999 |
Use four-digit years To ensure that Access interprets year values the way that you intended, you should type year values as four digits (for example, 2001 rather than 01).
Change how years are interpreted System administrators can customize Microsoft Office so that different rules determine how dates are interpreted. For example, your administrator could change the earliest two-digit year value that's interpreted as a date in the twentieth century from 30 to a lower number (see the above table). Also, administrators can change the default date format to display four-digit years instead of two-digit years. For more information about how to customize date interpretation, visit the Microsoft Year 2000 Resource Center on the Microsoft Web site.
Notes
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If you are using Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, or Microsoft Windows 98, you can change the century interpretation and the default date format to display to four-digit years without the assistance of your system administrator.