How to Handle Inconsistent Data Formatting in Excel When Merging Multiple Sheets?
I'm updating my dependencies and I'm testing a new approach and I've been struggling with this for a few days now and could really use some help. I am trying to consolidate data from multiple sheets into a master sheet in Excel, but I'm working with issues with inconsistent data formatting. Specifically, I have three sheets where date columns are formatted differently: one sheet uses `MM/DD/YYYY`, another uses `DD/MM/YYYY`, and a third has dates as text like `March 5, 2022`. When I attempt to use the `VLOOKUP` function to pull data based on these date columns, I often get the `#VALUE!` behavior because of the format discrepancies. I've tried using the `DATEVALUE()` function to convert them into a consistent format, but it's still returning errors for the text-based dates. Here's a snippet of my formula: ```excel =VLOOKUP(DATEVALUE(A2), 'Sheet1'!A:B, 2, FALSE) ``` However, this gives me a `#VALUE!` behavior if `A2` is in a text format. I've also considered using a helper column to standardize the date formats, but it's becoming cumbersome as I have multiple sheets to handle. Is there a more efficient way to merge these sheets while ensuring the date formats are consistent? Any help with a formula or VBA code that can dynamically format these dates would be greatly appreciated. My Excel version is 2021, and I'm working on Windows 10. Any help would be greatly appreciated! What's the best practice here? What would be the recommended way to handle this?