There are a number of date systems used around the world. The most-widely used is called the Gregorian calendar, with the BC and AD date system familiar to many people. There is another calendar system used by many people around the world called the Buddhist calendar. This calendar system begins its reckoning based on the birth of Buddha. Since this religious leader was born in 543 BC (or Jesus was born 543 years after Buddha, depending on how you look at it), you can convert from one system to another simply by making the proper adjustment to the year.
In other words, the year 2002 in the Gregorian system is expressed as 2545 in the Buddhist system. Likewise, the year 2500 in the Buddhist system would be 1957 in the Gregorian system. Thus, suppose you have the Buddhist date 430611, where 43 is the year (2543), 06 is the month, and 11 is the day of the month. You can convert this to a Gregorian equivalent by simply adding 1957 to the year, in this manner, assuming the Buddhist date is in cell A8:
=DATE(MID(A8,1,2)+1957,MID(A8,3,2),MID(A8,5,2))
The formula essentially pulls the characters of the Buddhist date apart, adds 1957 to the year, and uses the DATE function to put the pieces back together into the Gregorian system.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2049) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.
Solve Real Business Problems Master business modeling and analysis techniques with Excel and transform data into bottom-line results. This hands-on, scenario-focused guide shows you how to use the latest Excel tools to integrate data from multiple tables. Check out Microsoft Excel 2013 Data Analysis and Business Modeling today!
When working with dates, you may need to figure out all the dates on which weeks end in a given year. There are several ...
Discover MoreIt is no secret that Excel allows you to work with dates in your worksheets. Getting your information into a format that ...
Discover MoreDo you look forward to the weekend? Well, you can use Excel to let you know when the next weekend begins. Here's how you ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2015-05-25 07:59:07
Noonie
Very informative! Many thanks for your time and effort on explaining all this. It's very helpful. Btw, there's one misunderstanding here about the beginning of the Buddhist calendar. Actually, it began right after Lord Buddha passed away NOT his birth. He died at the age of 80. So Jesus was born 623 years after Buddha. Anyway, again, this is so helpful. It makes my life a lot easier since I live in a country where they use Buddhist calendar. Now I know another way out of fussy. Thanks to you, sir.
Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2018 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments