So who is up for a challenge? Can you use only formulas and extract dates buried inside text?
Your mission, if you choose to accept it,
- Download this file.
- In column C, write a formula such that you can extract the date in column B
- If you succeed, post your solution here as a comment.
- If you fail, drink some coffee, start afresh.

What are you waiting for? Start extracting!
Need some help?
If you want some clues, check out below links:
- Extract numbers from text using formulas
- Working with date & time in Excel – Basics
- Excel array formulas – examples & explanations
- More examples on date & time
Want more challenges? We got’em too
You better have access to lots of coffee or something strong, cause it going to get tough.
PS: If you feel like cheating, here is a solution.













5 Responses to “Preparing Profit / Loss Pivot Reports [Part 2 of 6]”
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I am not getting sound from the videos. I have checked all the settings and spent several hours searching the Internet to no avail.
Has anyone else had this problem?
Is there anyway to get the Grand Total to be broken out in the same fashion as the items above it? For instance, if you have in column 1, widget a, widget b, and have their sales by month in column 2, I'd like to see the grand total also be by month, for widget a & b combined.
I can't get anything other than a single line for the grand total, rather than the same format as the data above.
Widget A Month Sales
Jan 100
Feb 200
Widget B
Jan 150
Feb 250
Grand total - here I would also like to have Jan, Feb.
Jan 250
Feb 450