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excelpython-3.5openpyxl

Excel wont recognize date using openpyxl

I have a piece of code that converts a unix date to standard U.S. date format. It displays properly in excel, however excel doesn't recognize it as a date.

if str(startdate).isdigit():
    startdate = int(startdate)
    date = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(int(startdate)).strftime('%m/%d/%Y')
    ws4.cell(row=cell.row,column=2).value = date
    ws4.cell(row=cell.row,column=2).number_format = 'MM DD YYYY'

Any idea how to get excel to see this as a date rather than text?

Solution

  • My mistake was assuming the line below created a date.

    date = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(int(startdate)).strftime('%m/%d/%Y')

    After venturing into the docs (Scary as hell for a noob. Does it get easier?) I realized .strftime('%m/%d/%Y') created a string not a date.

    I converted that string to a date using:

    date = datetime.datetime.strptime(date, '%m/%d/%Y').date()

    Now excel recognizes it as a date.

    Hopefully this helps someone in the future.