Comments on: How to change date format in Excel and create custom formatting

The first part of our tutorial focuses of formatting dates in Excel and explains how to set the default date and time formats, how to change date format in Excel, how to create custom date formatting, and convert your dates to another locale. Continue reading →

Comments page 16. Total comments: 940

  1. My calendar created in the academic year has decided to change the year to 2019 starting back to August, which means January now is 2020. How do I correct the year in the Academic year calendar?

  2. I was literally bitting off the end of my tail until I found this tutorial. I had trouble with Autofilling the days in date format because I did not know that excel's default dates functions with the one that is set with the computer. I followed the instructions here and changed the format to a preferred one. Thank you so much for this.

    Cheers!

    A. West

  3. Hi,

    I hope you can help. Whenever I type Nov 09, under Date format, it comes out as 01/11/2009.

    I used to be able to just type in Nov 09 and it comes out as 09-Nov-18. Or Nov 26 when entered is recognized by Excel as 01/11/2026.

    Any help will be appreciated. Thank you!

  4. Hi,

    i try this method and the format did change to the one i keyed in. but when i do month(), the return value is still wrong.

    Data
    06/12/2018 23:57

    format cells
    06/12/2018 23:57 as dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm

    is it due to my date values does not have any that is bigger than 12?

    1. Hello, Huimin,

      Could you please describe the problem you are having in more detail? It is not entirely clear what formula you apply exactly and what result you get then. Please specify.

      Thank you.

  5. I use the "CTRL;" to quickly enter the current date and hit "SPACE" and continue to enter text to provide updates for that date in the same cell. The problem I am having is that regardless of the regional settings for the short date format (in my case 14-Mar-12), it will always use "dd-mm-yyyy" (i.e. the default date type "*") the format I want is "dd-mmm-yy". Is there a way to change the default date type format? If I don't enter any text after and exit the cell it will change the format to the desired one. If you enter any text after it will not change it and it will keep it as dd-mm-yyyy (i.e. 02-04-2018). putting the date in a separate cell is not an option.

  6. How to convert 1999-05-05 to 05.05.1999

  7. Michalle:
    Right click on the cell containing the data and select Format Cells then Date, then select the 09/15/18 from the list then click OK.

  8. I am trying to change date format from 9/13/2018 to 09/15/2018 (mm/dd/yyyy). I am using Excel 2013, Thanks for your help!

  9. Hi
    I have to capture a lot of till slips for an account recon. I would like to enter, for example 2506 and get out 25/06/2018 or 25 Jun for example. I cannot seem to find how to do that. I tried following your examples using the RIGHT, MID and LEFT values but it wouldn't accept it even if i used it exactly as shown. I'm at a bit of a loss. Nothing on my format options works as the system is reading the input of 250618 or 2506 as a code for a particular date. Please help. Entering each slip date exactly as a date format will be tremendously laborious.

  10. Hello, Saurabh:
    To change the date format right click on the cell, choose Format Cells then choose Custom then from the list choose the dd/mm/yyyy h:mm format. If your list doesn't show this particular format choose the dd/mm/yyyy format and in the field above the list which shows the formats add h:mm to it.

  11. 12-10-2018 15:12 Plz Suggest this Format Cells How am change his format cells in DD-MM-YY?

  12. 01/10/2018 /3943 how can I change into normal date

    1. Jebin:
      Not sure what you mean by normal, but you can extract the first 10 characters like this:
      Where the data is in A2 enter this in an empty cell:
      =Left(A2,10)

  13. HOW CAN I CHANGE 01/01/2018 TO 01-01-2018 IN EXCEL 2007

  14. How do I change the date format. From for example 43372 to showing the exact date which is 9/30/2018. I've tried going to format calls but does not seem to work

  15. I am trying to format the date cell with 2 Sept 2018 with
    02-09-2018 But it's showing as 09-02-2018. Help

  16. Sir,
    I want to change date format from 18.08.18 to 18-Aug-2018

  17. I want date to be in 8-12-2018(8-Dec-2018) numeric format and hyphen instead of slash, is it possible?

    1. Abutalha:
      Format the cell as Custom.
      Right click the cell, select Format Cells then Custom and select the dd-mm-yy formatting from the list.

  18. Nivz:
    I usually use the DATEDIF function.
    It looks like this =DATEDIF(Start Date,End Date,"D")
    Where "D" tells Excel to return the difference in days.
    The dates can be cell addresses.

  19. Hello All,

    Can someone help me to check days between two dates.

    thanks in advance.

  20. Hi all,

    Can someone help convert the following:

    'Mon 17/09/2018' solely into '17/09/2018'

    All I want to do is delete the text

    1. Frank:
      If the only thing you want to do is return the date then this should work for you: =MID(B59,5,10)
      Where the data is in B59. The returned data will be text.

  21. 70924 change to 24-09-2007 and 170924 change to 24-09-2017. Pls help

  22. Hi,
    How can I copy numbers under conditions, in specific column in another sheets automatically?
    For example, I have a column containing various numbers in sheet1 and I want positive numbers copied in sheet2 and negative number copy to sheet3 automatically.
    thanks

  23. I want to change format of 29/08/18 11:20:01 to 29-Aug-18 11:20:01. Any help appreciated

  24. Hello Eddie,
    I am not quite sure what you trying to express.
    Can you explain with further details ?

    Thanks

  25. i was trying to make a cell change to the date for example if i insert "t" then the cell would automatically change the date 8/31/2018

  26. Hello,
    Is that a way, for the Excel 2010 to tell me directly (without having to go to Control panel and click Region and Language to check the Date and Times format or look at the bottom right corner of the PC).
    Eg, if my PC date format :MM/dd/yy , then Excel can give me the result of "MM/dd/yy"
    if my PC date format :dd-MMM-yy , then Excel will show me "dd-MMM-yy".

    Thanks

  27. Kate:
    If I understand your question you're asking how to remove two characters from the text string.
    I would remove them by using the SUBSTITUTE function with a nested SUBSTUTUTE formula like this:
    =SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(K17,"T",""),"Z", "")
    Where the problem string is in K17 this says to Excel substitute nothing for the "T" and nothing for the "Z".
    Now, you'll need to copy this down the column and it is only looking for "T" and "Z", but if your data has only a "T" and a "Z" to remove, this won't take a minute to copy down the column.
    You can of course substitute another letter or letters for the "T" and/or "Z" or something else for the "nothing".

  28. I'm having a problem in excel where I have downloaded a file and need to change the date format. It comes out looking like "2018-08-20T19:22:12.559Z" and I simply need it to look like "2018-08-20 19:22:12.559" The 'T' and 'Z' are inhibiting me from reading the file in R and doing what I need to do with it. I could simply change each cell, however I have over 3000 cells to change and that seems tedious.

  29. Dear Sir, I am finding MAXIMUM date in F Column and which is having 10000 rows, I have written code like this =MAX(F1:F10000) but is is not working where I tried with G column which is having Price but i am getting maximum price without issues, but in F columns unable to find maximum date.(Note: I think Date is written in Text format ),please provide Macros code on short.

  30. In my excel sheet, I have multiple dates in the format "07/15/2018 8:00" for instance. I changed the date to a serial number and as expected I got a floating number. When I ran the =WEEKDAY function on that cell, I keep getting a return of 1/15/1900. I have tried formatting the column to short date and running that format, but I still got the same result. Please help! I can't find much on the internet about solving this problem.

    Thanks

  31. Muath:
    When you go to Custom and select Date and choose DD/MM/YYYY in the Type field what does the cell display?

    1. I do it not response ...
      10/22/2015
      this example above . can you do it on excel

      1. change your system's date format according to you. then do it in excel. hope, this works.

    2. Currently on my spreadsheet I have 16-07-2018 DD/MM/YYYY however what I am trying to achieve is 2018-07-16 YYYY/MM/DD? I've tried the format cells and custom but it wont change to the format I am trying to achieve. I have over 10k lines in the spreadsheet.

  32. i want to this type of date format 12.04.2018. please help me how i can days calculate in this type of date format

  33. Dear,
    I have the issue for format date how to change from MM/DD/YYYY to DD/MM/YYYY
    I do it via custom not successful. I don't know why not response Example :
    10/22/2016 !!
    can you help me this issue above? Because of more than 250 rows.

    Best Regards
    Muath

  34. Hi, how can I fix this in excel, when I type a date, ex. July 26, this will appear as July 1, 2026 (1/7/2026).

    Hope you could help. Thanks!

  35. How to change date from 01012001 to 01/01/2001???

    1. Mahesh:
      If you want to simply add "/" to the text string the formula is: =MID(F44,1,2)&"/"&MID(F44,3,2)&"/"&MID(F44,5,4) where the data is in F44.
      If the data is text or something other than a date the formula is: =DATEVALUE(MID(F44,1,2)&"/"&MID(F44,3,2)&"/"&MID(F44,5,4))

  36. Hi Doug - I am trying to change dates from ie 01/03/2019 to show the last date of the month instead - 31/03/2019. The cell was originally done as mmm-yy. Is this possible or do I have to go and change each line individually, bearing in mind they are all different dates but need to show the last date of the month as opposed to the first date of the month. And it is a very big worksheet...
    Many thanks

  37. I have to enter the date 7/18/19 but it will not let me change it like that and I want to keep it like that in general. please help me!!

    1. Ronny:
      How is the cell currently formatted?
      Right click the cell choose Format Cells. Which one of those formatting options in the list are highlighted?
      Choose Date and then the format you want and see if that works for you.

  38. thanks for help

  39. Chandrika:
    What do you want to do with the leading digit and hyphen?

    1. In the report i have two date format.

      1-12/3/2003
      Date/Month/Year

      2-27-08-2003
      Date/Month/Year.

      I want to date format as 27-08-2003 please suggest how to change the date format removing (/) using formula.

      thanks

  40. In the report i have two date format.

    1-12/3/2003
    Date/Month/Year

    2-27-08-2003
    Date/Month/Year.

    I want to date format as 27-08-2003 please suggest how to change the date format removing (/) using formula.

    thanks

  41. I have to enter the date as 20180713 but then I need to calculate the number of days between this future date and the current date (=today()). How do I do that?

  42. Hello,
    I tried to convert automatically the date format 7/5/2018 6:57:48 PM in 5-July without succes. I mention that the cells are already completed.

    Best Regards,
    Florin

  43. Hi,

    I exported data in this format March 2, 2012. I want to change it into 02/03/2012. I have tried separating into columns, change the format using customized format etc but it still didn't work. Can you please help? Thanks so much.

    1. Rananditra:
      Do you mean you imported some data?
      When you right click on the cell that holds the imported data can you change it to Date format.
      I'm thinking you might have imported text that looks like a date.

  44. Hi Svetlana,

    how can i calculate the actual hh:mm:ss from past date & time to current in excel sheet.
    Please reply me its very urgent .

    Best Regards
    Ashubir Thakur

  45. How would I auto-populate the lease end date in excel? I.e. lease start date: 10/01/2018 with a 48 month lease would end on 09/30/2022. I am trying to find a formula to quickly generate the end date based on the start date and the amount of months. How would I do that?

    1. Alyssa:
      There are three formulae you can use to accomplish what you want.
      One is =EDATE(A1,48) where the start date is in A1 and you want the date 48 months hence.
      The second is =DATE(YEAR(A1),MONTH(A1)+48,DAY(A1)) where the start date is in A1 and you want the date 48 months hence. Each of these will return 10/1/2022.
      To get the 9/30/2022 date use =DATE(YEAR(A1),MONTH(A1)+2,0)
      All of these dates are correct, but you might want to use the last formula.

  46. Hi,

    I've got a cell formatted as date (dd mm yyyy), which is the system format. If I enter a date as 1/7/2018 or 01/07/2018, the cell displays 00 01 1900. Any other way of entering a date seems to give an error. I need to dates in date format in order to do some statistical analysis on the data as a time series. Any help would be appreciated.

    1. U need edit format- account-0 decimal

    2. Walt:
      Have you tried to change the format for the cell?
      Right click on the cell, select Format Cells and then choose a date format that displays the data the way you want. You may need to try a custom format the option for this is at the bottom of that same format cells window.

  47. Sir, I have write a date format in excel i.e. 05.05.2016 but i want to change it automatically in 05/05/2016 with the formatting option, I have tried many times but nothing change, so please do the needful at the earliest.

    1. Hi, I have entered in excel date as 3/01/2020 but it is displaying as 01/03/2020 i have tried date formats still it is not coming but, I need this date as United States format mm/dd/yyyy how can I change this help me.

    2. Shyam Lal:
      The easiest way to do this is to Find and Replace the "." with a "/". After you've done this Excel will recognize the entries as dates and then you can format them to be displayed in the format that suits you.
      Here's the procedure:
      Select the cells that hold the dates you want to change.
      Then click the Find and Select tool, then Replace to open the Find and Replace dialogue window
      Then enter a "." in the Find What field and a "/" in the Replace With field
      The first time you do this you should click the Find Next button then the Replace button. This way you can see what the Find and Replace procedure is doing to your data.
      When you're satisfied that Find and Replace is doing what you want you can click the Replace All button.
      When this procedure id finished, you can select the newly modified cells and click the Format Cells option and format the entries to be display in the manner you like.

      1. Thanxxx - I just remembered! :)

  48. I need to pull out the year from text that is November, 2016 but it won't change into any kind of date format and I don't want to manually enter years for 2000+ rows

    1. Hello, Marianne:
      Hello:
      I think the easiest way to is to select the cells and use the Text-to-Columns tool in the data tab.
      It goes like this:
      Practice with one cell.
      Select the cell that holds the "November, 2016".
      Choose the Text-to-Columns tool.
      Choose the Delimited button, click next.
      Choose the Other button and enter "," in the field, click next.
      Then you'll see how Excel will separate the data, click finish.
      You can select a destination cell if you need to. Keep in mind that the cell you select will be the first cell of two cells for the separated data.
      After this you will have the year separated in a destination cell as Date.
      Go through this same procedure for as many of the cells at one time as you want - one more or one hundred more.

  49. Hi
    I want restore previous save date file of excel is it possible if possible then please suggest me what to do..

  50. Hi Svetlana,

    Thank you for this tutorial! IMO, this one of the best tutorials I've seen on Excel date formats. It is well organized, clear, concise, and formatted (both in font & pictures/screen-captures) in such a way that I found it very intuitive. Thanks again for the high-quality work - for free!!!

    Kind Regards,

    Mike

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