Question

I'm receiving an error message: “invalid data” – but it appears to me I’ve entered the date exactly as the example [closed]

Comments

Um. Invalid data on what? Who? It would be most helpful if you sent along the profile identification and if the file was OPEN (white padlock) and then people could look into the file on EDIT and see what's what. 

ALSO below your post there's a some other postings about the error message "invalid data" that might prove useful to you in figuring out what the error message refers to

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I'm trying to add my father and tried entering his birth date as 29 September 1932 but, when I clicked to then try to add him, received the error message; I don't think I've received a page for him with a white padlock because he hasn't been finished adding yet

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Jennie, there is a profile (private) for your father up there, so it looks as if you've figured it out.  If I'm missing something, please post again.

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 Okay, Jennie, check for a typo, such as a space that does not belong in the date, or a period, a comma, an apostrophe (these are called "separators" and I don't know why, I calls 'em punctuation even the space) 

When and if that correction made does not eliminate the invalid data warning, enter the date as 09/29/1932 and the WT computer WILL print it out as 29 Sep 1932

There there's the spelling of the month which could be a typo if you are typing it out

And as I say, there are below multiple posts about what the "invalid data" warning could mean

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You can also get an error if there are 2 spaces in a date. I often get those when copying a date with a single digit day.

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 Meaning, W.  that if I type in 9/ 2/ 1932 (two spaces) I'd get a warning? 

If I type in the letter 'l' in the lower case rather than using a '1' (digit) I will surely get an error (been there done that) 

OR if what I copy and paste has one or more of the aforesaid errors (spaces, separators, letters not digits, and whatever else the WT computer rejects) I will get an error

ALSO if I put the date in the wrong slot. That'll do it every time (been there done that) 

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Those darn dates, and then there is February 29, in the wrong year, sigh.

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I regularly get an error from copying a date like this: August  4, 1824 (it may not be like this after this posts, but there are two spaces between August and 4). The error then says 

1. A birth date (xxx born August 4, 1824) cannot be interpreted. Please use YYYY-MM-DD, DD Mon YYYY, or Month DD, YYYY.

which is funny because the double space is removed/doesn't display in html so the problem date shown is fine and it could go in exactly as shown in the error without problem. MMM dd, yyyy works fine for a date format, as long as you don't have that pesky extra space.

I think I have tried the letter as number bit as well from a document that was digitized. And yes, I see to to get a location error when I put the date in the location field. At least that is an obvious error!

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W, you are correct that HTML will automatically remove excess white space (what geeks call more than 1 space) when rendering a page, that does not actually remove the spaces from the stored page content.  The software that interprets the date from what you submit on a form is *NOT* HTML.  It looks at precisely what you entered - every character of it, whether the character prints or not.  The result is that there is nothing "funny" about it's inability to recognize an entry with an extra space as a date.

Based on the error message, however, it appears that you did not enter 2 spaces, but you entered "xxx born " before the date "August 4, 1824".  You can enter ONLY a valid date in that field and it must be in one of several formats that the software is capable of recognizing as a valid date.

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Yes. But since the error message is in html, the extra white space is removed, so the error message is saying Month DD, YYYY cannot be used. Please use Month DD, YYYY.

Copying the incorrect date from the error message works to fix the error. (I understand why the difference exists and I also find the error humorous. But I live in an ISO 8601 world so my definition of humor may not be typical.)

Answer 1

Jennie, if you have your profile on edit, and try to add a parent (or other relative) and make a change on your profile before saving the second, you’ll get the error message.

Better: finish the new profile first before making any changes to your profile.

Comments

Thank you, O Graphics Master!