DATEVALUE in Collabora Office Calc: Convert Date Text to Numeric Dates

• Introduced: original Collabora release and launch date are not established by the sources reviewed.
• Availability: documented in Collabora Office 26.04 help, scoped to that desktop-help release.
• Platform scope: separately deployed Online and mobile versions are not inferred from desktop documentation.
• Checked: October 14, 2026. Direct documentation and independent calendar/time controls; no native Collabora test was performed.

=DATEVALUE(text)

A direct text literal must be enclosed in quotes. A cell reference can supply a stored text value without quotes around the reference itself. The Collabora page recommends unambiguous ISO 8601 date notation rather than locale-dependent slash dates.

The result is numeric. Changing its display to a date does not make it a text string, and changing an unparsed source string’s number format alone does not perform DATEVALUE’s conversion.

=DATEVALUE("1954-07-20")

Expected result: 19925 with the documented default date base. Formatted as a date, that value represents 20 July 1954.

The matching =DATE(1954;7;20) constructs the same calendar date from numeric components. This gives a useful independent comparison without relying on a regional interpretation of 07/20/54.

Collabora also supports other date bases. The serial 19925 is not a universal representation of 20 July 1954 across every configured document; compare actual calendar dates when exchanging workbooks.

Enter the strings 2026-10-14, 2026-10-15 and 2026-11-01 as text in A2:A4. A leading apostrophe may be used during entry to keep them as text; it is an entry marker, not part of the intended date expression.

In B2 enter and fill down:

=DATEVALUE(A2)

Expected displayed dates are 14 October 2026, 15 October 2026 and 1 November 2026. Under the default base, the first serial is 46309. Keep column A so an unexpected conversion can be compared with its original text.

=DATEVALUE("A2") would instead ask the function to parse the literal characters A2. Quoting a reference name does not substitute the referenced cell’s contents.

With the converted B2:B4 values above:

=B3-B2
=B4-B2

Expected differences are 1 and 18 days. A source column of visually date-like strings is not enough to establish that arithmetic uses numeric date values; the conversion makes that intention explicit.

For a threshold test, =B2>=DATE(2026;10;1) has expected result TRUE. A date boundary created with DATE avoids comparing unrelated text formats alphabetically.

The reference states that if valid date text also contains a time, DATEVALUE returns only the integer date portion. For an ISO extended datetime such as 2026-10-14T16:00:00, the documented model gives the date 14 October 2026, without retaining 16:00.

=DATEVALUE("2026-10-14T16:00:00")

Under the default base, the expected date portion is 46309. This is a documentation-based parsing control, not a captured native result for every client or text-conversion configuration. Keep the original timestamp if the time is meaningful.

TIMEVALUE addresses the fractional clock portion of a valid time-bearing string. The two functions deliberately discard different parts; neither by itself preserves a complete textual timestamp and its external context.

For B2 containing the converted 14 October 2026 date:

=DATE(YEAR(B2);MONTH(B2);1)

Expected date: 1 October 2026. The conversion supplies a date value; the component functions and DATE create a separate monthly grouping key. Formatting a string to look like a month name is not the same construction.

The official help documents text-conversion settings that can affect recognition and #VALUE! behavior. These examples do not instruct you to change those settings globally. If a control fails, record the current locale, conversion settings and original input before deciding how to handle the field.

No complete invalid-string, missing-year or ambiguous-date error matrix is certified. The underlying date/time values also do not retain timezone information. Preserve any source timezone label separately rather than assuming DATEVALUE converts it.

• Collabora Office 26.04: DATEVALUE.
• Collabora date/time model and date bases.
• Editorial testing standards.

The dedicated product help was read directly. Calendar and numeric outputs are independently calculated expectations, with stated parsing and boundary limits. No native runtime or universal cross-deployment certification is claimed.