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 17. Total comments: 940

  1. 70924 change to 24-09-2007 and 170924 change to 24-09-2017. Pls help

  2. 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

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

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

    Thanks

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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".

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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

  11. 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.

  12. 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

  13. 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

  14. 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!

  15. 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))

  16. 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

  17. 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.

  18. thanks for help

  19. 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

  20. 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

  21. 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?

  22. 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

  23. 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.

  24. 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

  25. 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.

  26. 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.

  27. 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! :)

  28. 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.

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

  30. 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

  31. I wanted to add date and time
    suppose date 24/05/2018 & time 23:30:00 and another 25/05/2018 & time 10:30:00 i want the differece both date and time.

  32. hi,
    i got data with format date is "May 10 2018" with space.
    how to change format this date like 14-Mar.
    please help...

    1. Kiki:
      I took your data and was able to format it into the display you wanted using these steps.
      First, select the data
      Second, under Data choose Text-to-Columns
      Third, Choose the Delimited button, click Next
      Fourth, Choose the Space button, click next
      Fifth, Choose the General button, not the Date option
      Sixth, Choose the Destination cells, click finish
      Seventh, enter this into an open cell =DATE(I9,MONTH(5&G9),H9)
      Where I9 is the address that holds the Year, G9 is the cell that holds the month name and H9 is the cell that holds the Day. I used MONTH in your data because it used the word "May" instead of the month value "5".
      Once this is complete you should be able to format this cell as Date in the Format Cells dialogue window.

  33. Hi,
    I have two types of date date format on one is date month year format but another one is month date year format and I want to make both the date as date month year format. Please guide me. Below are dates:

    28-02-2014
    22-02-2014
    20-02-2014
    20-02-2014
    19-02-2014
    18-02-2014
    18-02-2014
    18-02-2014
    17-02-2014
    16-02-2014
    15-02-2014
    15-02-2014
    14-02-2014
    13-02-2014
    13-02-2014
    13-02-2014
    12/2/2014
    11/2/2014
    11/2/2014
    11/2/2014
    11/2/2014
    11/2/2014
    10/2/2014
    9/2/2014
    9/2/2014
    8/2/2014
    7/2/2014
    7/2/2014
    7/2/2014
    7/2/2014
    7/2/2014
    7/2/2014
    7/2/2014
    6/2/2014
    6/2/2014
    6/2/2014
    5/2/2014
    5/2/2014
    5/2/2014
    5/2/2014
    4/2/2014
    3/2/2014
    3/2/2014
    3/2/2014
    3/2/2014
    2/2/2014
    2/2/2014
    2/2/2014
    1/2/2014
    1/2/2014
    1/2/2014
    1/2/2014
    1/2/2014

    1. Hello:
      I think the easiest way to reformat the first dates that are in the "Month/Day/Year" format is to select the cells and use the Text-to-Columns tool in the data tab.
      It goes like this:
      Select the cells you want to reformat.
      Choose the Text-to-Columns tool.
      Choose the Delimited button, click next.
      Choose the Other button and enter / in the adjoining field, click next.
      Choose the General button and enter the cell where you want the numbers to be entered, click finish. Remember, there will be one number per cell so you'll need three cells, but you'll only need to enter the first cell address. For example, $B$2.
      After this you have the numbers separated so you can concatenate them into one cell by putting this formula in a destination cell like this:
      =Concatenate(B2,"/",C2,"/",D2)
      Format this destination cell as Date and you're finished with the hard part.
      After you've done this you can delete the extra columns containing the result of the Text-to-Column procedure.
      Copy all of the finished dates into the original cells, select all of the cells containing dates, format them as dates under the Format Cells window in your version of Excel and you're ready to go to work.

  34. When I enter the date as 05/30/2018 it stays in the cell but when I enter the date 053018 It changes to a completely different date. Is there a way I can keep the cell from changing dates?

    1. Susan:
      Yes, Excel and dates/times can be exasperating.
      The easiest way I know to accomplish what you're trying to do is let Excel know the value is a date by entering the "/" or "-" and formatting the cell as a date.
      If you just enter a number as in your second example and format the cell as a date, Excel shows the number as the number of days from Jan 1 1900 which is the date the PC Excel world began.
      If you need a leading zero you can try formatting the cell as text, but you won't be able to do calculations directly on text.

      1. Thanks Doug for your help!

  35. This will work:
    =LEFT(A83,2)&MID(A83,4,2)&RIGHT(A83,4)
    Where 17.04.2001 is in cell A83 and the formula is in another cell.

  36. How do i take out the dots using the formula. the below is date example

    17.04.2001

  37. Hi,
    I want to know the number of minutes between to times, but only looking at specific hours.
    Example:
    the minutes between: 23.03.2018 14.04 and 26.03.2018 07.22
    but only between monday to friday 8.00 - 18.30 , saturday 8.00-12.00

    Can you help me out with a formula i could use?
    Thank you

  38. How can I change this date 30-10-2001 to 30/oct/2001 Pls I need ur help

  39. Hi how to change апр.41 to 4.41

  40. Can you please help me if my date is in this format 27-03-2018 and I custom it to yyyymmdd the date stays 27-03-2018 in the formula bar?

    1. Hi Tracy-ann,

      What you see in a cell is only a visual representation of a date and you can change it to your liking by using different custom formats. The formula bar always displays dates in the default format.

  41. how to find the difference between'01-MAR-18'at the 1918/03/01 Can you please provide me a solution for this.correct pls 1-mar-2018

  42. I need to have the dates for the year auto populate, but I want to have 2 letters in front. For example; AB 15-3-18
    Please help!

  43. Hello!

    I have this date in my sheet:

    20122017
    14022018
    2022018

    I need yyyymmdd, but then I need to move to access.

    Help

    thanks

  44. Hi
    How can i change format to bilingual. in Canada we use date code on products so it can be read as English/French. See below for codes for months. example. February 21, 2018 can be written as 18 FE 21. Is it possible to do this in excel please?
    JA
    FE
    MR
    AL
    MA
    JN
    JL
    AU
    SE
    OC
    NO
    DE

  45. For some reason, Excel isn't using the regional formatting for dates that I have set in control panel. So instead of DD/MM/YY, I'm getting MM/DD/YY. The version of Excel is old, 97 I think so maybe it can only do American format dates.

  46. Hi,

    I have a column of durations formatted as [h]:mm:ss where I want to hide 00:00:00 values. Can I create a custom format to do this?

    Thanks,

  47. Hello,

    Could you please guide me in auto-filling the dates in the format as mm.dd.yyyy ?

    When I right click and drag the dates for fill series, the date unit is disabled and only the year is auto-filled. Is it because of the format (mm.dd.yyyy).? How could I autofill the days.

    Thank You.

  48. I'm saving one worksheet in a large workbook as CSV and finding the CSV file does not respect the change in default date format in that the step where I copy the worksheet to a temp sheet ends up using Excel's original default format therein and thus in the CSV. If I highlight the sheet by hand and save in this manner then "WISIWIG."

  49. I want to change the date written in '02-02-18 format
    but i want to write 02-Feb-18 format

    1. Hello, Tushar,

      It looks like your date is formatted as text right now. First you need to convert it to the date format. You can do this by using the standard Excel Text to Columns feature. Just select the range with your dates, go to Data -> Data Tools -> Text to Columns, choose the “Delimited” data type on step 1 of the Wizard and click Finish. Your data will get the default date format, 2/2/2018.

      After that press Ctrl + 1 and specify the necessary Date format, 02-Feb-18, for your data in the Format Cells dialog window. Click OK.

      Hope this information will be helpful for you.

  50. 'How to change date format in Excel': just followed these instructions to the letter, doesn't work, and checked, the dates are not in text format. The only way I can get the dates to change is by double clicking one box at a time then coming out of it, which is a rather slow way of changing a whole list of dates.

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