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 19. Total comments: 940

  1. 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

  2. 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!

  3. Hello!

    I have this date in my sheet:

    20122017
    14022018
    2022018

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

    Help

    thanks

  4. 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

  5. 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.

  6. 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,

  7. 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.

  8. 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."

  9. 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.

  10. '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.

  11. Hello,

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

    17.04.2001
    01.07.2000
    01.04.2002
    15.01.2004
    01.03.2004

  12. I'm trying to change a date from 02/01/2018 to 2018/01/02, when tipe it in it changes to 2018-01-02, the format I want isn't even on the format list. Everything on my region setting shows correct. This must be some default setting.
    Thanks

  13. The problem i'm facing is all the dates are in American Format i.e MM/DD/YYYY but i want in Indian Format i.e DD/MM/YYYY i've thousands of entry i changed the region to India but how do i change the format to all the dates at Once, Do I've to do it Manually or there is a formula which will automatically change it from MM to DD and DD to MM?

  14. Hi,

    I have an Excel table where the file name is a (weird)date format.

    For example in plain text it says: 1805.01

    This is actually a date format(yymm.dd).

    Is there a way to convert this to a normal date format so I can filter the column by date (e.g. dd/mm/yyyy or 01/05/2018)?

    Many thanks!

    Stijn

    1. Hello,
      For me to understand the problem better, please send me a small sample workbook with your source data and the result you expect to get to support@ablebits.com. Please don't worry if you have confidential information there, we never disclose the data we get from our customers and delete it as soon as the problem is resolved.
      Please also don't forget to include the link to this comment into your email.
      I'll look into your task and try to help.

  15. Hi, I have a problem not with formatting, but with entering dates.
    If I enter 2/1, it appears as 1 Feb not as 2 Jan which I want. Cell is formatted correctly (I think) as d-mmm (or 14-Mar from the date list) but the data entry I suspect is wrong. Computer (Mac) is correctly set to English Australian and I think only Excel has this problem. It only started after a recent reload. Something simple I have overlooked?

  16. I've entered date in dd.mm.yyyy format. But excel is not detecting as date. How this can be solved?

  17. help me subtract the dates below..i tried but i got -0.11

    13/05/2017 10:14:57 AM
    13/05/2017 7:40:04 AM

    thanks

    1. Hello,

      You can use a formula like this:

      =TRUNC(IF(A1>A2,A1-A2,A2-A1))&" days "&TEXT(IF(A1>A2,A1-A2,A2-A1)-TRUNC(IF(A1>A2,A1-A2,A2-A1)),"h:mm:ss")

      where cell A1 is “13/05/2017 10:14:57 AM”, cell A2 is “13/05/2017 7:40:04 AM”

      Hope it will help you.

  18. When formatting my date it shows as 20/MM/2017 when it should be 20/11/2017.
    The month displays as MM instead of the actual month.
    With the cursor in the cell, the date in the function bar at the top shows correctly as 20/11/2017 but in the cell itself as 20/MM/2017.
    Changing the format to e.g. 20 November 2017 will show 20 MMMM 2017 in the cell.

  19. I have dates in Excel which are entered either as mm/yy or dd/mm/yy; they display as mmm-yy - which is correct. However, the date is used in a calculation and I want it to be read as the last day of the month (end of month) - is there a way to format the cells to ensure that the date is referred to as end of month?
    Thanks in advance.

  20. I would like to convert dates into month then by week.
    For example 01/05/2017 to 07/05/2017 would equal May week 1 2017 and 22/05/2017 to 31/05/2017 would equal May week 4 2017 then be able to filtered them to show in week/month order not A-Z
    Is this possible?
    Thank you

    1. Hello, Esther,

      For me to understand the problem better, please send me a small sample workbook with your source data and the result you expect to get to support@ablebits.com. Please don't worry if you have confidential information there, we never disclose the data we get from our customers and delete it as soon as the problem is resolved.
      Please also don't forget to include the link to this comment into your email.

      I'll look into your task and try to help.

  21. I am trying to convert a date from 20060911 (YYYYMMDD) to 09112006 (DDMMYYYY) I have tried to use the format but only received ########### is there a formula to do this?

    1. Hello, Toni,

      Suppose, your original value «20060911» is in cell A1. If you place this formula =TEXT(DATE(LEFT(A1,4),MID(A1,5,2),RIGHT(A1,2)),"ddmmyyyy") in cell B1, for example, you’ll get the result you need.

      Hope this will work for you.

  22. Hi,

    If i have a number such as 201709 in a cell, is it possible to format the same cell so excel knows it is a date (september 2017) and not a number?

    Naturally the date 2452/04/3 now shows.

    Thank you

  23. How to convert a text string 10-Oct-2017 to a number in excel?

  24. I set date format to mmm-yy.
    I entered 9/99. Excel displayed Sep-99 as I expected.
    I entered 6/06. Excel displayed Jun-17. It did the same for all years after 2000.
    I finally figured out that I need to enter 6/2006 (not 6/06) for years after 2000 to get the correct display: Jun-06. Is Excel stuck in the last century/millenium? Is there a way around this -- the need to enter the full 4-digit year?

    1. Hello,

      I regret to tell you but this is a standard Excel behavior. For it to recognize whether you want to enter 2006 rather than June or 1906, you need to input all four digits of the year.

  25. I want this Date (17/03/1988) as 17031988 please give me solution

  26. HOW CAN I CHANGE THE FORMAT OF DATE IN EXCEL :

    25-01-2017 TO 01-25-2017
    PLEASE HELP ME IMMEDIATELY

  27. when i enter 20/12/2008 as date in excel then it appers as 391204 so what can i do

  28. I wish to know the SIMPLEST method to change date format from 8/18/2017 to 18/8/2017. The former is confusing since in England it would suggest that the date is the 8th of the 18th month, which is clearly nonsense. I assume this ridiculous format must be imported from the USA and as such, is of no use to me, leading to as much confusion as the present USA President. Please advise.

  29. Hi there,

    Previously my 2007 excel showed up Agt-17, and now after upgrading to 2016 it became Agu-17. Since I refresh a lot from my staffs files and they are still using office 2007, I can't get the values from the month of August as mine will be showing Agu-17 and theirs are still in Agt-17.

    Can anyone advice me on how to change the format of the month show up?

    Thanks

  30. Hi
    How to convert date from 1/4/2017 to 1-april-2017 in excel

  31. Hi

    if i want to do some change in excel sheet and also want that whatever the last time saved time and date was there it should remain the same. is it possible.
    eg: some has created excel sheet yesterday and while validating i did some mistake and update wrong number in some cell and in next day if i want to change the number again is it possible that i can change the number without any changes in current date and time if i save today??? please help me out in this if possible.

  32. it solve my problem.thanks.

  33. Hello,

    The problem I’m having is my date column was changed to integers. How do I turn my integers back to dates? I tried all your steps and tips and still no change. But when you click on the cell the integer changes to the date and when I click off the cell the date turns back to an integer. Help please! Also, my computer was upgraded to Microsoft 365.

  34. Madam,
    If already we have a some of Date format and filled in lot of coloumns then how can we convert another date format like Ex: 28.05.2015 it already done by lot of coloumns now we want 28-05-2015 this format. what can i do.

    1. Hello, Srinivas,

      you just need to select the cells with the data, press ctrl+1, go to Custom tab and set the following data format dd-mm-yyyy
      Hope it helps!

  35. Hello, Svetlana.

    Could you please help to change date format from 2016.12.22 12.35 to one in which the time is removed and becomes simply 22.12.16.

    Thank you!

    1. Hello, Undra,

      first of all, make sure to enter the date in the default format, which is: 12/22/2016 12:35

      Then, select the cell with this date, press Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells window and switch to the Custom tab. There, in the Type field, enter the following: yyyy.mm.dd
      and click OK

      Voilà :)

  36. Hello,
    i need to sort out some data by day of the week, i did a custom change on the date column e.g from "01/10/16" to "Saturday", now how can i get the date in the formula bar to reflect whats in the sheet below, because it still "01/10/16"??

  37. I'm looking to create a custom format that starts with 380AEW- after the '-' I need the 2 digit fiscal year starting in october, 2 digit month, and then a sequential number. for example 380AEW-170516, the next could be 380AEW-170617 depending on the month. Any tips would be appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Joe

  38. MY EXCEL FILE DATA WILL CHANGE WHEN PRESS CTRL+D IM TRYING MORE TIME BUT DATA NOT CHANGE.PLZ HELP PLZ MY MAIL ID IF POSSIBLE
    THIS IS ERROR IN MY FILE-
    Unique ID Ledger No. Folio No. Date of Contact. Initial Date of Entry Record Open/Closed Customer Full Name Customer Address First Line Customer Address Second Line City State PIN Code Landmark Customer Phone 1 Customer Phone 2 Customer Email ID Customer DOB Agent Date of Entry Agent Code
    Unique ID Ledger No. Folio No. Date of Contact. Initial Date of Entry Record Open/Closed Customer Full Name Customer Address First Line Customer Address Second Line City State PIN Code Landmark Customer Phone 1 Customer Phone 2 Customer Email ID Customer DOB Agent Date of Entry Agent Code

  39. When I change the date to 01-05-1939 and hit save, then i reopen the save document, and it didn't save it to the format i had corrected it to be. It is back to 1-2-1939. I re did it and saved it again and reopened it n it still never saved. Idk why this keeps happening. I even tried '01-05-1939 and still didn't save when i reopened it.

  40. Hi.
    I have date format dd.mm.yy and value 01.01.30. When I change format to dd.mm.yyyy it gives me 01.01.1930. But I need 01.01.2030. How can I convince Excel to move this boundary line between year 1900/2000 higher than 01.01.30?

    Thanks in advance

  41. I'm wanting Excel to automatically add the date to EVERY document I print, without me actually doing it on the print settings. Is there a way to set this up in the default settings under 'Options'

    Thanks in advance

  42. Excel date 01/04/2014 I want to change date column new to 20140401

  43. JUL-31-2021 how do i change this in excel. Its format is not being changed

  44. a couple of days before my "tonumber" formula sheet working perfectly, now today i open that sheet and going to work on it all "tonumber" formulas appear "error". my excel sheet contained a lot of data.please help me how to set "tonumber" formula...........

    Thanks in advance

  45. i m unable to change date format form dd.mm.yy to mm/dd/yyy
    example --> 21.06.17 i need to change it as 06/21/2017

  46. Hi,

    I want to change 16/03/2016 (text) to a date format: 2016/03/16

  47. Hi Hummayun,

    First select your date range then press ctrl+H and replace . with / hit enter.
    Now press ctrl+shift+3 that's it.

    1. Thanks alot Peshiyaboy...

  48. i want to change date format in excel sheet.

    From

    05.05.2016
    05.01.2016
    02.01.2016
    05.02.16
    10.02.15

    To

    05/05/2016
    05-01-2016
    02-Jan-2016
    05-Feb-2016
    10-Feb-15

    how to change it..?
    any ideas please share..

  49. i want to change date format in excel sheet.

    from to

    05.05.2016 05/05/2016
    05.01.2016 05-01-2016
    02.01.2016 02-Jan-2016
    05.02.16 05-Feb-2016
    10.02.15 10-Feb-15

    how to change it..?
    any ideas please share..

  50. Nevermind and thank you, just a simple =a2+1 will solve the issue

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