excel XP strange (2002 (10.6501.6626) SP#)

[mcvickerp]

Some one in our office has discovered if you enter a5-9 into a cell, it displays arabic characters followed by the -9. The data entry shows a date 6/26/2004. If you click to enter in the cell, the data 6/26/2004 appears. If you press enter with no changes, the arabic characters reappear. I have attached a screen shot because I cannot capture the characters in any other method.

This is strange. We can do it on three different machines. Each with different levels of service packs but all using Excel XP and Windows 2000. I would like to hear if other can do this.

[HansV]

This is a known problem. See XL2002: Cells Automatically Format with Hijri Date Format When You Type "a-" Before a Number for an explanation and a way to avoid this behavior.

[mcvickerp]

Thanks for the quick response.