# LOINC code is automatically converted into date format data

**URL:** <https://forum.loinc.org/t/loinc-code-is-automatically-converted-into-date-format-data/2500>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [April 3, 2025, 7:52am UTC](https://forum.loinc.org/t/loinc-code-is-automatically-converted-into-date-format-data/2500 "2025-04-03T07:52:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![maryhan01](https://forum.loinc.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@maryhan01](https://forum.loinc.org/u/maryhan01)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 7:52am UTC](https://forum.loinc.org/t/loinc-code-is-automatically-converted-into-date-format-data/2500/1 "2025-04-03T07:52:06Z")

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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!!!

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**Author:** ![pdbanning](https://forum.loinc.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/9f8e36/32.png) [@pdbanning](https://forum.loinc.org/u/pdbanning)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 2:17pm UTC](https://forum.loinc.org/t/loinc-code-is-automatically-converted-into-date-format-data/2500/2 "2025-04-03T14:17:52Z")

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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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**Author:** ![maryhan01](https://forum.loinc.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@maryhan01](https://forum.loinc.org/u/maryhan01)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 10:11pm UTC](https://forum.loinc.org/t/loinc-code-is-automatically-converted-into-date-format-data/2500/3 "2025-04-03T22:11:59Z")

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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

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**Author:** ![maryhan01](https://forum.loinc.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@maryhan01](https://forum.loinc.org/u/maryhan01)\
**Post date:** [April 3, 2025, 11:01pm UTC](https://forum.loinc.org/t/loinc-code-is-automatically-converted-into-date-format-data/2500/4 "2025-04-03T23:01:03Z")

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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!!

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**Author:** ![mitchedo](https://forum.loinc.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@mitchedo](https://forum.loinc.org/u/mitchedo)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 1:21pm UTC](https://forum.loinc.org/t/loinc-code-is-automatically-converted-into-date-format-data/2500/5 "2025-04-08T13:21:54Z")

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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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**Author:** ![timbriscoe](https://forum.loinc.org/user_avatar/forum.loinc.org/timbriscoe/32/938_2.png) [@timbriscoe](https://forum.loinc.org/u/timbriscoe)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://forum.loinc.org/t/loinc-code-is-automatically-converted-into-date-format-data/2500/6 "2025-04-08T13:47:20Z")

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Thanks @mitchedo - this is a great tip!