# Standardize Cell Formats

In Microsoft Excel you can format cell values. For example, the date "15/09/2021" could be formatted as "15 September 2021" or "2021-09-15". By default, KeyView extracts cell values with formatting, as they would appear in Excel. If you prefer, you can configure KeyView to standardize cell values.

To standardize cell formats

- In `formats.ini`, set the following parameter.

      [Options]
      StandardizeCellFormats=TRUE

When this feature is enabled, KeyView formats any cell where a number has been entered according to the following rules.

## Numbers

Numbers are printed to the maximum length entered–that is, the full number put into the cell, without any rounding. Negative numbers are printed with a dash in front of them (as opposed to, for example, bracket form).

The following table provides some examples.

Example | Formatted value | KeyView (standardized) output
--- | --- | ---
Rounded number | 600 | 600.1
Scientific notation | 1.56E+04 | 15600
Fraction | 17/20 | 0.85
Percentage | 46% | 0.46

## Text

All text that is part of the format string is stripped, including currency symbols.

## Dates

All dates are printed in full ISO-8601 format (that is `YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS`). There are two exceptions to this rule:

- Cases where the date format contains a time delta (that is, `"[h]"`, `"[m]"`, or `"[s]"`). In this case, the time is displayed as an interval, which is the number of days (where a day is defined as a period of 24 hours). The time is printed in the ISO-8601 time interval form, for example `P1.234D`.

- Cases where the absolute value of the cell is less than `1.0`, and the date format contains only time components. In Excel, values between `0.0` and `1.0` correspond to the fictional date `1900-01-00`, and are used to express times without an associated date. For example:

  Value | Date format | KeyView output
  --- | --- | ---
  `0.5` | `hh:mm:ss` | `12:00:00`
  `0.5` | `dd hh` | `1900-01-00 12:00:00`
  `1.5` | `hh:mm:ss` | `1900-01-01 12:00:00`
  `1.5` | `dd hh` | `1900-01-01 12:00:00`

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