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Excel 2010 - Date/Time Formatting - Question About Symbols Used in Formatting.

I thought I knew all about date/time formatting but then I saw this:
"[$-409]m/d/yy h:mm AM/PM;@"

What does the [$-409] mean?
Why is it in square brackets?
What does the @ symbol mean?

Martin Liss

I think that both of them are meaningless since m/d/yy h:mm AM/PM gives the same results.

SOLUTION

Subodh Tiwari (Neeraj)

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brothertruffle880

ASKER

What's the significance of the semi-colon and the @ sign next to it?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Subodh Tiwari (Neeraj)

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brothertruffle880

ASKER

What is the significance of the semi-colon and the @ sign next to it?

Subodh Tiwari (Neeraj)

Nothing specifically if you input a date time stamp in the cell with that custom format. You may remove the ;@ from the custom format string and that won't have any effect on the formatting of the date/time. As I already said that @ is used for text so in this case you may input either a date/time stamp or a string in the cell.

SOLUTION

Martin Liss

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brothertruffle880

ASKER

Thanks to all for your valued assistance. You made my life easier!

Subodh Tiwari (Neeraj)

You're welcome!

Martin Liss

You’re welcome and I’m glad I was able to help.

If you expand the “Full Biography” section of my profile you’ll find links to some articles I’ve written that may interest you.

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