Date Timestamp Sort Problem (Excel 2003)

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I have a query that sorts data by date. The date field is data type

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How do you format the field in the query? By using the Format function? That converts the date/time value to a text string, so it will be sorted as text. If you use the Format property, the field should sort correctly.

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Thanks for your post. Yesterday was our holiday so this is the first chance I had to return your post. I did use the format function so that explains my problem. I forgot about the format property. I used that and it worked. Thanks!

Now that it sorts properly and I removed the time, I took it a step further by making the query a Totals query grouped on the date field. Instead of grouping on the formated result it still grouped it on the underlying date/time stamp from the table. In fact, when you enter the cell of the resulting query you will still see the date/time. Making a second query based on this query would not work. What would be the best way to accomplish this, to create a totals query on a date and ignore the time?

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You can use a calculated column

Int([DateField])

and format it as a date using the Format property. This will remove the time part from the date/timestamp. You should be able to use this column for sorting and grouping.

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Thank you Hans. Your solution worked.

I take it that the “time” portion of the date/time field is stored as a decimal and the INT function uses only the integer (serial number of the date). I will have to remember that one for next time. Thank you very much for your help.

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That’s correct. Dates are stored as numbers with the date as the integer part (the number of days since December 31, 1899) and the time as the fractional part (e.g. 6:00 AM = 0.25 and 6:00 PM = 0.75).

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Thank you for confirming that for me. Have a wonderful day Hans!

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