DIAGNOSE → FIX

Excel Date Not Recognized

Imported dates remain text or swap day and month.

LIKELY CAUSE

Why it happens

Identify the source date format and locale before conversion.

SAFE FIX

What to do

Use Power Query or DATEVALUE only after confirming the intended format.

Debug in this order

  1. Reproduce the problem on the smallest sample that still fails.
  2. Inspect the exact keys, types, ranges or markup involved instead of only the displayed value.
  3. Fix the root cause, then rerun the original case and one known-good case.
  4. Document the rule if the same problem can return in recurring work.
WORKTOOLS RULE

Do not hide an unexplained data error with a cosmetic workaround. Make the input and matching logic predictable first.