Very strange problem

[AllanS]

Hello to all and nice looking forum!

I gamble on sports, yes, bad like that, and have encountered a bug. I copy data from a place called statfox.com to look into the future or past if you will. Not as good as a psychic though! lol

Anyhow...

Specifically I copy stats from the NBA and baseball.

Here is my bug. I go to the site, http://www.statfox.com/

Then I scroll over to the NBA drop down menu. Then I click team statistics.

Then I click a team, say Boston. I cut and paste normally, the game data. The second box you see with last 20 games.

Like this.

DateOpponentLineOUScoreSUATSOUFG %3PT %FT %REBFG %3PT %FT %REB12-4-09at OKLAHOMA CITY-4190105-87WWOv56.5%52.9%75.0%4647.1%17.6%76.9%3212-3-09at SAN ANTONIOPK18790-83WWUn46.2%22.2%73.7%4242.0%12.5%41.2%6612-1-09at CHARLOTTE-4177.5108-90WWOv54.5%58.8%89.7%4440.5%18.2%68.6%47

On my old machine which runs XP and has Excel 2003 it works fine.

With Vista, it messes up the dates. I have tried everything. Different browsers, compared settings in Excel, even tried office.org or free office or whatever it is called.

Still won't work. It copies half the dates correctly, and some dates it copies like text or worse. I am not really sure, I cannot type data in to fix the error.

I have a new Gateway with Vista. I am waiting for them to mail me Windows 7.

It is so easy to cut and paste on my other PC, and I have loked in every forum I can find for three days and found nothing that fixes this bug with Vista.

So it is not the Browser, I tried three including IE 8, Opera and Google. It is not Excel, or Star Office as both mess up, it is something with Vista.

I made myself a super admin BTW, on my computer, figured that one out. So I can adjust everything.

I have files dating back ten years that are all gving me date issues. Some work, some do not. I need a fix!

Do not ask for sports picks. lol

I trade sports like stocks, that is how I use the data. : )

More than happy to help with any issues I may come across.

 

[z3r010]

I only have Windows 7 and office 2010 beta installed here and it pastes great with that so I cant replicate the issue

When pasting into excel have you tried any of the "paste special" options?

 

[AllanS]

Hi z3r010.

Yes I have tried all those. The thing is, I should not need to.

When you cut and paste, look at the dates. Can you format them to say April-12-2009. All of them???

This is where the bug is. Some dates are ok, others are not.

I am testing Excel Office 2007 as well. A no go. I plan to purchase the home Edition, it is all I need for what I do.

You must tell me, is Windows 7 better than Vista? I await it in the mail! lol

My thinking is, Vista wants to cut and paste in a certain format, Works perhaps. I have no idea where to find this option. The help files in here somewhat amazing, hyper reading them right now!

 

[kword88]

try a notepad replacement

 

[AllanS]

Kword88, that would be moving into the past. : )

It works on one computer, no the other. So the bug is somewhere, it is to find it.

Again, he other PC has XP Professional and Office 2003. I only load the Excel part. I have no need for word or databases stuff.

Good bug eh! lol

Driving me nuts...

 

[z3r010]

Upload an example of your excel file and we can see if we can work out the problem.

 

[AllanS]

OK, will do!

Ok, I have attached the file. I will now go get the same exact file on my old PC.

 

[AllanS]

BTW, looks at rows 8 through 15. Errors.

Then look at rows 16 to 21. They are correct. Try a date format and you will see what I mean.

 

[Dwarf]

Hi Allan,

I've had a quick look. Is this what you mean?

The first image is from the website, whereas the second is from Excel. Checking the format of the data in question reveals that part of the column is formatted as General and the part highlighted as Date. I don't think that there is anything that you can do to prevent this, as this must be how the data has been formulated on the website, even if it displays differently.

 

[AllanS]

Here is the old machine sample.

 

[AllanS]

Yes, kind of Dwarf.

You see, I need to sort them by date to plug into a machine I use to trade sports. I track a few things, to improve my trades. Makes me 1k or so every year. So I bought all these new toys to be faster at it and go for 5k! lol

Try date sort the whole column in both samples. The old one will do a date change, the new one will not.

My theory is Vista is saving it in a temp place, and deciding it should be pasted in a certain format. But where???

I read up on clipboards, a no go that I can see.

BTW, a friend with Windows 7 tried it, same bug.

Just try change the date style in the column. The rest requires un-merging cells, however that is not the issue.

And thanks to all for troubling your minds with this!

 

[AllanS]

Ok, I loaded the file made on the old machine, and the date function worked fine on the new machine.

So it is somewhere in the cut and paste, and not an Excel issue.

 

[Dwarf]

That is strange. I tried again, and made sure that the whole sheet was set to General format before pasting the information directly from the webpage. Again, halfway down the date column, the formatting changed from General to Date.

 

[AllanS]

"The first image is from the website, whereas the second is from Excel. Checking the format of the data in question reveals that part of the column is formatted as General and the part highlighted as Date. I don't think that there is anything that you can do to prevent this, as this must be how the data has been formulated on the website, even if it displays differently."

I would be most inclined to agree Dwarf, but why would it work on one machine and not the other?

Bugs like this are known to cause insanity. lol

I need that date sort. That is key for me.

 

[AllanS]

Is it possible somewhere, in Vista, to change how it takes in copied data?

I am looking over the Microsoft site but I see nothing. BTW, I used to own a computer store. So I can look up most bugs pretty fast. Not this one!

 

[Dwarf]

I think it is how they formatted the data. Take a look at this - different team, same date range. Again, notice the highlighted section. And yes, I did ensure that the whole sheet was formatted as General before pasting.

 

[AllanS]

I am downloading the the 2010 beta version of Office. Will let you know shortly how it works out.

Again Dwarf, it cannot be the web page, if it works with XP, and not Vista. Would not make logical sense. I am a logic pig. lol

BTW, I trade here.

www.betfair.com

No good if you live in America, but it's a ton of fun. The more you know about a game, the easier it is. So I study all things basketball related, usings numbers only.

I need to do date sorts, so I can chart team progressions. Amazingly, in Baseball, you can out perform major mutual funds using Excel charting data. I beat them easily in baskets too. Usually to the tune of 2000% per year.

But this is a Vista forum, enough of that! lol

 

[AllanS]

Ok, I downloaded 2010 Office to my new machine. Did not work.

I downloaded 2007 Office to my old machine. The dates work. Obviously not an Excel issue.

Trieded Opera on both machines. Not the browser.

I shall keep searching...

 

[AllanS]

Me AGAIN!

lol!

I found the bug. I needed to change the language code from English Canada to English United States.

Those evil Canadians!!! I'm one of them. lol

I figured it was posting to a buffer of some sort, and it turned out to be the language one. Problem solved!

Thanks to all who helped out!

 

[Dwarf]

I have a feeling that it is a bug in Excel.

Blank worksheet, default settings, showing A1 as General format.


Data entered into cell, still same format.


Cursor keys used to move to another cell and then back to this one. Notice the format is now Date.