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 26. Total comments: 940

  1. My query is regarding date format. is it possible? if i enter a single number in cell and it show particular date. For example like current month is february 2016.

    if i enter 1 then it show 02/01/2016(mm/dd/yyyy)
    if i enter 15 then it show 02/15/2016(mm/dd/yyyy)
    if i enter 23 then it show 02/23/2016(mm/dd/yyyy)

    I just want to enter only one digit and it show me date of this digit with current month.

    1. Hi Kaps,

      Please try the following formula:
      =DATE(YEAR(TODAY()), MONTH(TODAY()), A1)
      Where the day number is in A1.

  2. I have an excel 2013 sheet that has "format as a table" and the top row is headers with a drop down for sorting. A group of column headers are dates and they are formatted as such. However, some of the dates (formated as mm/dd/yy), are throwing an extra number on the end of the date. If I input 02/10/16, it insert 02/10/162 in the cell. How do I fix this? And the sample under Format Cells, Date, mm/dd/yy shows mm/dd/yyy.

    1. Hi Elizabeth,

      To help you better, we need a sample table with your data in Excel and the result you want to get. You can email it to support@ablebits.com. Please add the link to this article and your comment number.

  3. Does anyone know how to convert a date in the 20131001 format to a date format of 10/1/2013, or vice versa?

    Thanks.

    1. Hi Todd,

      Please try the following formulas:

      =DATE(INT(LEFT(A1, 4)), INT(MID(A1, 5, 2)), INT(MID(A1, 7, 2)))

      =YEAR(A1) & TEXT(MONTH(A1), "00") & TEXT(DAY(A1), "00")

  4. Hello everyone
    Does anyone knows how to convert a date in pivot table into a fortnight? For example, 2015-07-09 is the first fortnight and 2015-09-16 is the second fortnight.
    Many thanks to you all
    Pedro

  5. how to convert datetime to unix time?

    1. Hi santosh,

      Please try the following formula:
      =(A1-DATE(1970,1,1))*86400
      Where the converted datetime is in A1.

  6. Hi Svetlana! I've received a csv file from Shelfari of all the books I've placed on their "shelves" to import into Goodreads, as Shelfari is being taken over by Goodreads; both are Amazon websites. I've been told by Goodreads that I must use a csv file with a date format of yyyyy-mm-dd (they stipulated dashes between numbers rather than slashes) to have my "date read" column import accurately, i.e., show that i read a book on January 12, 2014 instead of December 1, 2014.

    After I create a custom date format (yyyy-mm-dd -- but I've also tried yyyy/mm/dd) for the date read column, I save the file as a csv(comma delimited) type and choose "yes" to keep this format but leave out incompatible features. If I choose "no", the changes must be saved in another type/format, but Goodreads needs a csv file so I have to choose yes.

    So I choose yes and save as a csv. But when I try to close the file window I get the pop up box: do you want to save the changes you made to the file? (I thought I just had!) and have to answer the box explaining the incompatible features again (I thought I just had!). Whether I choose yes or no to save at this point and whether I use dashes or slashes to separate the numbers, when I reopen the file, the dates are back to the original mm/dd/yyyy format. I'm using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and am running Windows 10.

    I hope you can help me save these dates in the format Goodreads has asked for: yyyy-mm-dd instead of the format Shelfari sent me in the csv file mm/dd/yyyy.
    Thanks so much,
    Cookie

    1. Hi Cookie,

      It's difficult to determine the cause of the problem without seeing the source file. If it does not contain any sensitive information, you can send it to our support team at support@ablebits.com and we will try to fix it.

  7. I was sent a spreadsheet on the date column is has it as 20140207 but I need to change it to 2/7/2014 but when I go to the Format Cell and date and try to change the date format all I get are ########## even if I try to make the cell bigger I get the same thing.

    1. also forgot to mention can't use formulas system I trying to upload information won't accept formulas.

      1. Hello Rizo,

        Excel perceives 20140207 as a number and is unable to convert it to a date on its own. That is why you are seeing those hash marks.

        Assuming that 02 is a month and 07 is a day, you can use the following formula to convert a number to date:

        =DATE(LEFT(A1,4), MID(A1,5,2), RIGHT(A1,2))

        The formula returns a serial number representing a date in the internal Excel system. And now, you can open the Format Cells dialog and set the date format you want.

  8. How best can I obtain a number after using the =DATEIF()function for computing the age of an individual

  9. I,
    HELP ME TO CONVERT FOLLOWING DATE FORMAT

    MY FILE HAS A DATE FORMAT AS 22.05.15
    I WANT TO CONVERT THIS AS 05/22/2015

    Reply

  10. Employee attendance tables in Excel field is -Personal No. date month from-16.12.2015 to 15.01.2015 this format i want to Sheet and also his -duty,overtimes,leave,calculate this table type
    PerNo. - Date- time period- hours
    from - to -
    98264532 16.12.2015 09:00- 17:30 7.5

  11. Hi

    How to change the Fri, 1 Jan, 2016 format to 1-Jan-2015 format ?

    1. Hi Aditya,

      It's one of the predefined Excel formats for dates. So, simply select the cell(s), press Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells dialog, and switch to Dates. Then under the Type section, scroll to the very bottom, and select the format like "14-Mar-2012".

  12. Vipin Kumar:
    If I understand your problem right, you can try

    =IF(G2>F2,"profit",IF(G2<F2,"loss",IF(G2=F2,"even")))

    Good Luck!

  13. my problum whan iam cell formula =if(g2>f2,"profit",if(g2>f2,"loss",if(g2>f2,"even))) not come the loss

  14. HI,
    HELP ME TO CONVERT FOLLOWING DATE FORMAT

    MY FILE HAS A DATE FORMAT AS 22.05.15
    I WANT TO CONVERT THIS AS 05/22/2015

    1. I,
      HELP ME TO CONVERT FOLLOWING DATE FORMAT

      MY FILE HAS A DATE FORMAT AS 22.05.15
      I WANT TO CONVERT THIS AS 05/22/2015

      Reply

      1. Hi can you help me?

        from CVS file. The date shows 01/07/2016 which is July 1, 2016, But when I format the cell and click the format 14-Mar-01 which means"March 14, 2001" it shows 1-Jul-16 which is January 7, 2016. how I can make it July 1, 2016 which is suppose to be the date.

        Thank you.

  15. Hi, how do I replace cells with format 00:03:13:79 by 00:03:13,79 for a whole column?
    I need to be able to add those time values (in format uu:mm:ss,00;@). When I simply replace the last ":" by "," it works, but changing all those cells by hand would take ages...

  16. Hello,
    In Canada the government has specific date format that is legislated for food items. The format for the Date is as follows: 08 JA 30
    January: JA
    February: FE
    March: MR
    April: AL
    May: MA
    June: JN
    July: JL
    August: AU
    September: SE
    October: OC
    November: NO
    December: DE

    My question is how can excel use AL for April or MR for March? Much appreciated.

    1. apr for april...mar for march

  17. I found the answer to my question thought I would share

    DATE: =LEFT($D2,2)&"/"&MID($D2,3,2)&"/15"

    TIME: =MID($D2,5,2)&":"&MID($D2,7,2)&":"&RIGHT($D2,2)

    Hope someone else needs it :-)

    HAVE A BLESSED DAY !

  18. Hi, I need to convert a date format like this: dd mm (no dash, comma, colon as separation characters between day and month values) to any date format which can be recognized by excel. Already tried with custom format without any success....can you help me?

    1. I really wish there were more arelicts like this on the web.

  19. Dears,,,
    please help i need to create date format as yyyymmdd (20151230)= 30/12/2015 . i have tryed but it's not working . advice your assisstance

  20. Thank you for such a great tutorial!!! You just saved my job.

  21. Is it possible to convert a date in excel to an 11 digit interga 11 format.
    So this equates to the time in seconds since 1970.

  22. The second link in this whole section is:
    How to convert date to number in Excel

    I need the reverse
    How to convert a serial number to date in Excel
    but have not found it. Think of is as a trig function where I want to do the reverse. It's probably somewhere on the net, and I just can't see it... Getting old I guess... Can you help?? Thanks. JoeD 20151102 (I see this date format is becoming more popular; I've used it for about 30 years even with 4 decimals appended

  23. I need to covert a cell that contains both the date and time 1027154048 (1027 is the date and 154048 is hour (15=3) minutes and seconds. I need to be able to convert by formula into two separate cells if possible without going in and separating the numbers manually for each cell?

  24. Hi...I have several columns under the following format: "SEP-16-2013" until "SEP-16-2015" but when I try to change the "GENERAL" format to "DATE" format, excel does nothing and I need to filter the info by specific month,day,year. If I replace "SEP" to "09" I am abble to change the format (as DATE), but I have at least 60 columns under that format and have it done this way takes a lot of time...any suggestions?

  25. Hi there,
    i am importing a csv file and i have a column with date (in chinese e.g. 8月28日 which is 28th of August) but when i import this file (and replace the chinese characters with "/") some of the dates is shown as a date and some other as text. Despite of it if i try to change the format of the "text" date, it doesn't show the number as it is supposed to show.
    It is very difficult to find a solution i have been struggling for the entire day.
    Can replace the date one by one as we are talking several files with several thousands of row each.
    I trie to change my local language setting as well but no solution unfortunately.
    Any helps?
    Thanks.

  26. hi sevetlana how to inserting date use utc format in c# code.

    1. Furrealz? That's maolverusly good to know.

  27. Hi,
    Can someone help with an issue we are having. The format of our Excel is Swedish. when I type a date into a cell with no (General) format, such as 3/10 (meaning October 3rd) Excel changes this to 10/3 and applies a custom format to the cell. How can I get Excel to simply accept what I have entered as the correct format and not change the order?

    1. Hi,
      Did you managed to get a solution? I'm facing the same issue. Can't seems to find the answer and so far, you're the only one that is asking this question. How to change the sequence? 1/5 to be 1st May instead of 5th Jan. Please help.

  28. Hi Svetlana,

    how can i format an excel cell which will give me a day format which will give me in days more than 31. Whenever I am giving a day with the format "dd" the same is showing as 1 for 32 days and so on.Please help

  29. I want to date 18/08/2015 is 1808205 no slash no dot please help me.thanks

    1. =Text(Select Date,"ddmmyyyy")

    2. Hi Sanjay,

      You can either apply the custom format ddmmyyyy to the cell, or use the formula like =TEXT(A1, "ddmmyyyy") where A1 is the cell containing your date. The former changes only the display formatting, while the latter (TEXT function) converts a date to a text value.

      1. Thanks a lot it helps us a lot..... :)

  30. Excellent article! I was going crazy trying to fix an issue with dates from an old file that didn't convert correctly when I upgraded and I finally could. Thank you very much!

  31. oh i'm sorry, fyi my windows reginal setting is in indonesia. thank u so much

  32. hi svet? can you help me. why when i typed like 01012010 means Jan 1st 2010 the result is 14/10/4670 ? is there any way i can custom the date, so when i type 01012010 the result is 01/01/2010 ? thanks advance

  33. How do i change 20080702 to July?

  34. Hi, could please help me how to find the volume for the date and time stamp.
    Eg: 12:00:00 AM, i need how many no of cases for that day???

  35. i want the date format like 6th August 2015.

    please help to make this possible.

    Asif

    1. use as it is like dd/mm/yy

    2. Hi Asif,

      Open the Format Cells dialog and set the following custom format:
      d"th" mmmm yyyy

  36. I have the exact same problem. I already tried erasing the excel keys from the windows registry, I have tried to reset excel, and lastly run an office repair but I still cannot make it work, some dates change and some don't even though all of the dates are on the exact same column with the exact same formatting. Did you ever find a way to fix it?

  37. send the video formula

  38. i.e 8.15 to 8:15

    1. Babu,

      You can use the "Replace all" option to replace all dots with semicolons. Once you do this, the values will get converted to the time format automatically.

  39. How to convert in the excel from dot to time format.

  40. Using Excel 365.
    I know how to create a Custom Format for dates using the Format Dialog Box. In some mail merge data files I create, I want to use the same date format each time I export the data from Access into Excel.

    I don't want to retype the format each time I use it in a new merge file. Is there a way to save the format in Excel so I select it instead of needing to create it new each time. I want to enter the keystrokes once and reuse the format each time I export my data into Excel to run a merge?

    Thanks,

    1. Doug, did you ever figure out a way to save your custom date format? I'm trying to do the same thing. I'd like my custom date/time formatting to be an option I can select rather than have to type it into the custom box every time.
      thanks!

  41. Hi Smita,

    Open the Format Cells dialog, switch to Custom and copy/paste the following format in the Type box:
    d/m/yyyy hh:mm:ss AM/PM

    1. Date Amount
      7/1/2015 83098 Avg Amount Weekday Mon
      7/2/2015 70699 1st Week Week Day Tue
      7/3/2015 81769 Weekend Day Wed
      7/4/2015 59426 2nd Week Week Day Thu
      7/5/2015 57018 Weekend Day Fri
      7/6/2015 88446 3rd Week Week Day
      7/7/2015 71574 Weekend Day Weekend Sat
      7/8/2015 79595 4th Week Week Day Sun
      7/9/2015 76862 Weekend Day
      7/10/2015 86939 5th Week Week Day
      7/11/2015 55152 Weekend Day
      7/12/2015 53965
      7/13/2015 75443
      7/14/2015 84495
      7/15/2015 80454
      7/16/2015 75999 Q): - you have to find "week day" and "week end day" Avg for the month.
      7/17/2015 80011 Note:- everything will be automatic, you are not alowed to put anythin manualy.
      7/18/2015 58481 Note:- if you want you can insert new row or column. (try to make simple and easy formula)
      7/19/2015 50221
      7/20/2015 76699
      7/21/2015 84291
      7/22/2015 77361 I need this solution and how
      7/23/2015 75877
      7/24/2015 82523
      7/25/2015 57064
      7/26/2015 56603
      7/27/2015 88283
      7/28/2015 77222
      7/29/2015 85175
      7/30/2015 86431
      7/31/2015 88306

  42. Hi, i am trying all the above possibilities but unable to change format for date example "15/6/2015 09:36:40 AM" pls suggest me

  43. How do you get the following date formats:

    If a formula results 01/15. How can I format to read JA/15.

    Each month will have its own letter combo.

  44. How would I change a format of 20150708 into something like: 8-July-15?

    1. Hi Tim,

      Because 20150708 is a number, you need to convert it to a date first. In this case, the best way is to use the Text to Columns wizard, as demonstrated in the following tutorial:
      https://www.ablebits.com/office-addins-blog/excel-convert-text-date/#text-to-columns-wizard

      Since 20150708 appears as "year month day", remember to select the corresponding format YMD in step 5.

      After the conversion, you can apply any date format you want by using the Format Cells dialog.

      1. Svetlana thank you for these instructions! Worked for me.

        1. Keep these aricelts coming as they've opened many new doors for me.

  45. How To Change date format from 12 may 2014 to 20140512

    1. Hi Subhash,

      If you just want to display the date in that way, apply the following custom format: yyyymmdd

      If you want to convert the date to a text string, use the formula like =TEXT(A1,"yyyymmdd") or any other method of converting dates to text.

  46. I have one question on date formats. I have some excel files exported from a web based tool from different locale and some files has date format as dd/mm/yyyy and some has mm/dd/yyyy. Now I Have to export them into a access DB which is throwing error due to diff date formats. As I have over 100 files can some one suggest is there a way to make the date format similar when exporting into access?

  47. I’m looking for some help in excel I’m trying to automatically insert today's date in a cell when certain cells have data but I don’t what that date to change in the future/when I next open Excel

    This is what I have so far.

    =IF(OR(B2>0,H2>0),TODAY(), "FALSE")

    From what I have read if I open the workbook tomorrow it will update all the previously dated cells.

    Has anyone advice or a way to fix this ?

      1. Hi Reuben,

        Just a word of caution about using circular formulas in Excel. Yes, that formula works provided that iterative calculations are allowed in a worksheet (Excel Options > Formulas > Calculation options).

        However, using circulate references in Excel has many side-effects. For example, if you accidentally switch to Formula Editing Mode and press Enter without making any changes to the circular formula, it will return a zero.

  48. dear Svetlana,
    Thanks so much for the index. match formula.. but there a error coming in some of the cell where date in not picking (it is taking some unknown date like 00-00-00) . how can i fix that error.please help

    1. Hi Jibu,

      Index / Match is very powerful indeed, since I learned it I've practically given up on using Vlookup.

      As for the error, sorry, it's next to impossible to advise anything without seeing your data. If you could post this question on our Excel forum with a sample workbook attached, our support team will try to help.

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