Question

How should excel categorize your name? As text, numbers or dates & times?

How should excel identify social security number?

How should excel categorize dates like April 15, 2017?

Answer 1

1. Names are usually in text format. for example: name: JOHN, SNEHA.

names are not number, symbol or date and time format.

you can always sort the text format or names in excel.

sorting is done in ascending (letters starting from A to Z)

descending (letters starting from Z to A)

and there is also an option to custom sort based on your requirement.

2. social security number, is in number format.

SSN is a 9 digit number given specifically to U.S. citizens by U.S. government

as it says, the number format can again be arranged in specific manner according to the requirements.

they can be arranged in ascending (low to high) or descending (high to low) format

and custom sorting can also be done based on new to old or old to new data entries

3. excel does have a date format specifically for date inputs

it has different formats for date,for example 15 january 2020 can be formated like month first (01/15/2020) or date first (15/01/2020, month in letters (15-Jan-2020

alot of other options are also available in the format section of the dates

it can also be sorted in ascending or descending order or in any other custom format.