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# DateValue Function Doesn't Accept Date Literals

Article ID: 116117

Article Last Modified on 8/15/2003

APPLIES TO

- Microsoft Excel 95a
- Microsoft Excel 5.0c
- Microsoft Excel 5.0a for Macintosh

This article was previously published under Q116117

## SYMPTOMS

In the versions of Microsoft Excel listed above, the Visual Basic DateValue function does not accept a date literal (for example, #8/12/71#) as an argument.
NOTE: In Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows and Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition, the DateValue function DOES accept a date literal.

## MORE INFORMATION

In Visual Basic Help, the following information is contained in the entry for the DateValue function:

The 'date' named argument is normally a string expression representing a date from January 1, 100 through December 31, 9999. However, 'date' can also be any expression that can represent a date, a time, or both a date and time, in that range.

The last sentence of this entry is only partially correct. The DateValue function does not accept a date literal in the #<date># format. If you attempt to use a date literal in the DateValue function, you receive the error message
Type mismatch
and your subroutine does not run.
The DateValue function accepts only strings that represent dates ("July 4, 1776", "1-Jan-95", "9/1/94", and so on) or other functions that return the same type of information [the DATE() function, the NOW() function, and so on].

Additional query words: 5.00a 5.00c 7.00a XL7 XL5 XL5/XL7

Keywords: KB116117