LOINC code is automatically converted into date format data

General
1

I have a serious but trivial problem.

I can’t fix the problem that some LOINC codes in Excel are automatically converted to date format.

Is there a way to prevent it from automatically converting to date?

Please let me know how to fix it.

Thank you!!!

2

Hello and thanks for posting. Microsoft’s “helpful” feature of presuming hyphens mean a short date format has always impacted the first 12 codes created in LOINC. I find if you work from the .csv format and paste special>values, you can retain the twelve codes. Or if it was forgotten, one can sort the list to bring the 12 together, insert an apostrophe before each string and hit return.

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3

Hi Pam

Thank you so much.

I thought those were way above 12 codes…
Now I can fix it.

If you show me the 12 codes, that should be greatly helpful.

Thanks again

4

HI Pam,

You don’t need to show me the first 12codes.

Finally, I got the solution.
I use that expression
=YEAR(G2)&“-”&MONTH(G2)

Thank you so much!!

1 Like
5

I always use the Data tab on Excel to import any csv into Excel. This way you can set the data type for each column. It’s a bit more hassle than just opening the csv directly, but it prevents Excel from making incorrect assumptions about data types based on their values. I use the legacy import feature in Excel; I can’t stand the new import feature.

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6

Thanks @mitchedo - this is a great tip!