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 21. Total comments: 940

  1. 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

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

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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. Hi,

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

  7. 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...

  8. 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..

  9. 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..

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

  11. 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.

  12. 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

  13. 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.

  14. 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.

  15. How to convert date in this format

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

    Kindly help

  16. 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.

  17. 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

  18. 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.

  19. thanks a lot.

  20. 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.

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

  22. 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")

  23. 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

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

  25. 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....

  26. 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....

  27. 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

  28. 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

  29. 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

  30. 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...

  31. im trying to put conditional formatting for highlighting cells with the formula in Rule of Conditional formatting, =(TODAY()-$G$2)>7 ,where $G$2 is of date format " 1/18/2017 6:35:45 AM".
    But formula is not working, is that it is returning a data format something like this "1/1/1900 12:47:19 AM".

  32. Hello Svetlana

    I'm trying to format this: 20490521 into date (2049 year, May 21). When I format it as a long date format it shows ##################. and wrights me that when dates are negative or too long it is shown with ########.

    How can I solve this?

    Thank you in advance.

    1. Hello Beka,

      Excel displays hash signs when there's not enough room in the cell to show a long date, in this case you just need to make the cell wider. In your case, Excel may not recognize the number as a date, and you will have to convert it as explained in How to convert 8-digit number to date in Excel.

  33. I have two cells one is represent date (dd-mm-yyyy) and another is time (hrs:mm:ss) I have to bring both in one cell and in another cell I have to add 1.30hrs in time to show different, as time change if date changing is possible, please help in this regards

  34. Hi Svetlana!

    Can you help me convert the date from the following to the ending day of that week:
    16 Wk 28
    16 Wk 29
    16 Wk 30

    I am trying everything but I can't figure it out! Please help as that is the date that comes in from a Pivot table that can't be adjusted :(

    Thank you!

  35. i have a column of dates from a program i use, when trying to sort them they sort numerically by date, then alpha by month (so all the 1st are together, then the 2nds, etc....i'd like the actually sorted by date oldest/newest yet i always have to convert them manually (converting column doesn't change/fix anything as it seems to already know it's a date...but won't alter it by formula) is there another simpler way? (i am able to use other columns with the formulas to convert to julian then back to standard date, but this seems tedious and it really seems tedious with the macros i use....TIA.

  36. How to Convert 01.01.2016 to 01/01/2016 date format

  37. How do you get the following date to change on every Sunday automatically

  38. Hello Svetlana,

    I have dates in 2 columns and in 1 column when highlighted - I can see same value in both the cell and the formula bar.
    case-1
    cell - Mon 21-Nov-16 Formula Bar - Mon 21-Nov-16

    but in another cell
    case-2
    Cell - Mon 21-Nov-16 - Formula Bar - 21-11-2016

    can you please advice whats the difference in both and how to use them either as case 1 and case 2?

    Also, i am interested to know, as to why if the value is taken under case 1, when we add formula of Cell (with date say cell A2) =A2+2 doesn't give me Wed 23-11-2016

    Please help.

    Thanks,

    Manish

  39. I am trying to write "08 - 16" which denotes "8 to 16" range but it is automatically converting 08 - 16 into August 2016 date format which I dont want. Please help me on how to keep the format intact.

    1. Hi Saurabh,

      Type it with the preceding apostrophe like this: '08-16

  40. I need a date and time calculation. For example 11-1-2016 is current date previous date 23-03-1992 is equal to =23 years and 3 months and days 23
    its use for age calculation ,,.
    please help me .

  41. I need to show Century in my date format, but I'm not understanding how to do this. Example:

    Format is CYYMMDD
    C=Century
    Years 2000-2099 C=1
    Years 1900-1999 C=0

    If date is 10/15/2016 on excel spreadsheet must show as: 1161015

    If date is 12/31/2039 on spreadsheet must show as: 1391231

    1. =IF(LEN(TRIM(TEXT('01'!D7,"mm/dd/yyyy")))-FIND("/",TRIM(TEXT('01'!D7,"mm/dd/yyyy")),FIND("/",TRIM(TEXT('01'!D7,"mm/dd/yyyy")))+1)=2,"1"&MID(TRIM(TEXT('01'!D7,"mm/dd/yyyy")),FIND("/",TRIM(TEXT('01'!D7,"mm/dd/yyyy")),FIND("/",TRIM(TEXT('01'!D7,"mm/dd/yyyy")))+1)+1,2)&LEFT(TRIM(TEXT('01'!D7,"mm/dd/yyyy")),2)&MID(TRIM(TEXT('01'!D7,"mm/dd/yyyy")),FIND("/",TRIM(TEXT('01'!D7,"mm/dd/yyyy")))+1,2),TEXT(YEAR('01'!D7)-1900,"000")&TEXT(MONTH('01'!D7),"00")&TEXT(DAY('01'!D7),"00"))

      You can change the Column-Row (D7) as per your sheet where Date will be there in format mm/dd/yyyy

  42. how to change my default century year in excel...i cant read before 1900 year in poi

  43. I have Date data where it contain both type of date string
    26 08 2016
    25/8/16
    want to apply and convert it into one format.

  44. i want to conver the date formt "20160627T065908.000 GMT to dd/mm/yyy hh:mm:ss
    how can i achive this fuctionality ? please suggest asap

  45. Hi,
    I want to change the date format for my data from 10/11/2012 14.30.00 to 10/11/2012 14:30:00
    Thank you in advance

    1. Hi Marcellin,

      The easiest way is to use Excel's Find and Replace feature:

      - Select all cells with dates that you want to reformat.
      - Press Ctrl+H to open Find and Replace.
      - Type a dot (.) in the "Find what" box, and colon (:) in "Replace with".
      - Hit Replace All.

      Done :)

  46. How can I change the date format of "07/22/2018" into "2018-07-22"? I have tried right click, format but the slashes wont change into dashes. :/

    1. READER THE UPPER SECTION DEAR

    2. Hello Dan,

      Select the cell, and Press Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells dialog. On the Number tab, select Custom from the Category list and type the following format code in the Type box: yyyy-mm-dd

      1. Hi, I have tried this in my CSV file and it does work, but once I save it and reopen the file, it has converted it back to MM/DD/YYYY. What can I do so that when I do the Custom and change to YYYY-MM-DD it keeps it once saved?

  47. i was calculating for days left between two dates but i wanted it to give only the number of days not the month it keeps giving me until number 31 and then goes back to counting from one .if it is left 65 days i wanted it to give me 65 days but it gives me 4 or 3 so any way to fix it in file format dialog box

  48. Hello,
    I am looking to convert 14/09/2016 09:47:06 and 2/9/2016 12:01:21 PM these two date format, listed in single column, to format "dd/mm/yyyy", in separate column.
    I am able to covert second format using functions like TRUC/TEXT etc. but getting error "#VALUE" wherever first format is listed in that column.

    Would appreciate prompt help.

    TIA
    Nitin Y.

  49. I need to format a date to read mmddyyyy with no slashes. Can you help me with this?

    TIA

  50. Hi
    In excel 2016 where we are using the pivot table from base data , how we can change the date formate. e.g. I have used date format 01-09-2016 in base sheet and while creating pivot , date format changed to 01- sep. As I am going to use pivot for H-lookup, its not finding the value. Can anyone suggest solution?

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