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 20. Total comments: 940

  1. 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.

  2. 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

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

  4. 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.

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

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

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

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

  8. 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.

  9. 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

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

  11. 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.

  12. it solve my problem.thanks.

  13. 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.

  14. 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!

  15. 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 :)

  16. 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"??

  17. 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

  18. 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

  19. 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.

  20. 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

  21. 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

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

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

  24. 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

  25. 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

  26. Hi,

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

  27. 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...

  28. 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..

  29. 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..

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

  31. I am looking to have a spreadsheet given to users. they will need to be able to input a date (mm/dd/yyyy format) into A2, and then, without them knowing how to use autofill, to have cells b2, c2, d2, and e2 populate with the next 4 days (user puts in 1/2/2017, and b2-e2 auto populates 1/3/2017, 1/4/2017,1/5/2017, and 1/6/2017). I know autofill function can do this but I have to assume the end user will not know/remember to do it all the time.

    Thank you for any assistance.

  32. I have a column with date numbers which do not follow a series e,g 1,2,3,6,8,9 meaning some dates are missing intentionally and i want to formart the column to have the dates look like this,1-march-2013 automatically without excel auto corecting the series to eg 1234567 filling the missing dates numbers of dates, is there a way out. please help

  33. Hello!

    I would like to use the function =year() and =month() but if i have "1-Feb-17 to 10-Feb-17" in a single cell, the functions will not be able to work. Is there a way to express that date range and yet I am able to use those two functions?

    Thanks!

    1. Hello, Shawn,
      Do you have a whole column with lots of cells where each contains a couple of dates? For us to be able to help you better, please, send us a sample workbook with your data and the result you want to get to support@ablebits.com. Remember to link this article and your comment in the email.

  34. Hi,

    I have the year, for example 1979, but need it to be mm/dd/yyyy and the month and day just need to be 01/01. Example: 01/01/1979. How can I format the cells? When I do it, it doesn't recognize the year as the year so the numbers come out all mixed up.

    Thanks for your help.

    1. I have a date field with MM/DD/YYYY and I would like to eliminate the YYYY portion of the date field. I don't need the year in this date column
      Thank you

      1. Bob:
        Select the cell that contains the date, right click, select Format Cell. In the format window that opens select the Date option. You will see all the choices of date formats listed there including the one to only show the month and day.

  35. How to convert date in this format

    Example:- 15/05/2012 to 15-05-2012

    Kindly help

  36. How we can change the date format, in excel if date is written like 03.11.2017. I want to convert the same entries like 03/11/2017.

  37. I have a merged document in Excel with a date column format as
    'mmm dd, yyyy or 'Sep 07, 2017
    and I want to be able to change the entire column format into something recognized in Excel. So I can sort the dates.

    I used to use a plug in called Kutool on Pc - but now I have a Mac and I can't find a way to sort this out.

    Any advice

  38. Hi, may I know how do i convert below date/time to plus 8 hours ahead; and date is changed accordingly? 05 - date, 03 - month

    05-03-2017 4:02:00 AM

    Thank you.

  39. thanks a lot.

  40. I have consecutive days in a row. Starting form middle January to middle February. When i change the format of the cells to display "Mon, Tue, Wed... Excel return the 1st day of February as "Mon" And not "Wed" as the 31st of Jan is a Tuesday.

  41. HOw do i change/convert the existing date format 21.02.2017 into 21/02/2017 (in the same cell)?

  42. Thanks for the article and the numerous informations it provides.

    I will just correct one formula :
    =DATEVAL("1/1/2015")& TEMPSVAL("6:00 AM")
    It will not give the right date (january 1st, 2015) but january, 20th, 3050.

    The ampersand has to be changed to a plus sign :
    =DATEVAL("1/1/2015")+ TEMPSVAL("6:00 AM")

  43. HI

    I want to convert this 22/12/2016 03:22:39 PM to 22-Dec-2016 how do i do it in excel.

    Any advise is appreciated

    Thanks in advance.
    Yunus

  44. how to change a value for example 201001 to read as Jan-2010 in excel?

  45. Hello...I would like to change only date from 1/1/17 to 31/1/17....When we drag as per instruction..... it is displaying like this
    1/1/18
    1/1/19
    1/1/20....

    in my case year change instead of date....please give a solution....

  46. Hello...I would like to change only date from 1/1/17 to 31/1/17....When we drag as per instruction..... it is displaying like this
    1/1/18
    1/1/19
    1/1/20....

    in my case year change instead of date....lease give a solution....

  47. Hi I need the format of this data (6/25/2010 10:59:09 AM IST)
    which I downloaded as dd-mmm-yyyy. Please give a solution

  48. HI,, IF I ENTER 21/2015-16 I WANT TO CHANGE 21 WILL BE CHANGED LIKE 22,23,24 ONLY SERIAL NUM WE CHANGE HOW TO CHANGE THAT TYPE PLESE HELP...I NEED SHOW IN THE FORMAT LIKE 22/2015-16,23/2015-16

  49. If i enter a date in MM/DD/YYYY format it automatically change to DD/MM/YYYY format within the date of 1 to 12. if the date after 12, it shows correct format in MM/DD/YYYY format.

    My format Cells has the format as MM/DD/YYYY. I need all the date must show in the format of MM/DD/YYYY.

    Note: I dont want to change my regional language settings.

    Please tell how to fix

  50. How to ADD below with same format-

    1d,4h,30m,0s (which I get from [=INT(E3-D3)&"d,"&HOUR(E3-D3)&"h,"&MINUTE(E3-D3)&"m,"&SECOND(E3-D3)&"s"]
    2d,8h,30m,0s (which I get from [=INT(E3-D3)&"d,"&HOUR(E3-D3)&"h,"&MINUTE(E3-D3)&"m,"&SECOND(E3-D3)&"s"]

    Please help me...

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