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 8. Total comments: 938

  1. Hello all,

    May I ask how can I show my date like: 9-Aug-2021, with the input message by me be: 8/9/2021 please? Because if I input it that way (with month first, then date), it turns out like: 8-Sept-2021

    Thank you so much in advance!

  2. How can I convert from 7/14/2021 to 7/14 ?

    2. Define the column as DAte data type
      Apply custom format: M/d

      The underlying date will contain the year but it will not be displayed.

  3. That should have read day, date, month and year!

    Thanks

    Louise

    Louise says:
    August 5, 2021 at 4:11 am
    I would like all the day , date and year in the following format

    Mon, 23 Jan, 2021

    Is there anyway to do this in excel?

    Thanks

    Louise

  4. I would like all the day , date and year in the following format

    Mon, 23 Jan, 2021

    Is there anyway to do this in excel?

    Thanks

    Louise

    1. Hi!
      I hope you have studied the recommendations in the tutorial above. It contains answers to your question — ddd, dd mmm, yyyy

      1. Define the column as a Date data type in Home tab > Number group

        alternately
        ddd, d mmm, yyyy

        Single D does not display leading zero

        Alexander's format would display date

        Mon, 03 Jan, 2021

  5. Within a cell, I've been trying to suss out how to colour the day name differently from the date (in a lighter grey shade) to help the date stand out but keeping the day visible as it will jog the user's memory for the delivery they're checking.
    I know it's possible to change font colour between positive and negative numeric values and conditional formatting can be used to pick out different cell values in different colours but I can't find a format syntax to colour part cells.
    If you know of a way to use custom formats to colour different parts of a font string I'd be interested to hear. Just curious, don't expect there's many people want to do that!
    Until I find a better way I have duplicated the date column - one has the ddd format with grey font and the other column has the dd/mmm/yy format with black font.
    thanks

  6. Hello,

    How can i convert from July 24th 2021 to 24-07-2021

    Thanks

  7. How would I go about doing the opposite?
    e.g.

    from:
    25/09/2019 14:00:03.000
    to:
    2019-09-25T14:00:03.000Z

    Thanks again

      1. Yeah, I realized just after posting that, for doing it the other way around, it was easier to simply create a custom format that includes the T and Z in the required places.

        Thanks again

  8. Hi,
    How would formula would I need to convert the following time stamp formats?:

    from:
    2019-09-25T14:00:03.000Z
    to:
    25/09/2019 14:00:03.000

    Many thanks

      1. Thank you!

  9. hi,
    i want to insert serial wise numbers for particular month placed orders?
    Such as 21-year,07-month,and in that month placed orders one by one.

    i got upto (yy,mm PR). I want that to be in order like 210701 PR,210702 PR,210703 PR,210704 PR,210705 PR.

    Please help me out

  10. I have the issue that when I copy a BOM from another program I have certain numbers with the format "1.1.1" which are converted to "01.01.2001". This is fine when I copy them as I make sure they are formatted as text first.

    My problem however is this other program sometimes writes them as "1,1,1" with commas instead of full stops. Don't ask me why this happens. I copy and paste over like normal and use the find replace feature to change the commas to full stops. This is where Excel then decides to change the format back to standard and overwrite all my "1.1.1"s as "01.01.2001". When I then attempt to convert back to text it gives me the 1900 text of that date which is unwanted.

    How do I use find and Replace to change my commas to full stops without Excel reading it as dates? There are format options in the Find and Replace feature but when you use it I see it uses standard first and then converts to text for example. So I will quickly see a flash of "01.01.2001" and then it will turn into the 1900 text.

    Is there a way to Stop Excel reading "1.1.1" as a date and only use "1/1/1" for example?

      1. Sorry but as I said this doesn't work as the Find and Replace function overwrites this. Even when I set the desired format with the Find and Replace function I see that it converts with Standard format and overwrites as text afterwards, giving me a date as 1900 text.

          1. My process is:

            Format column as text
            Copy BOM into column (formatted with commas "1,1,1")
            Highlight column and Find and Replace all commas with full stops.
            Find and Replace changes these to Dates

            When I click on options in Find and Replace to format as text it formats first to dates and then as 1900 text so I end up with 443829 instead of the "1.1.1" that I want.

  11. Dear Sir,

    I need to keep type in my excel date as 02 AUGUST 2021. Month has to be full block letters (capital letters). please help

    1. Hello!
      This is only possible when converting date to text.

      =TEXT(A1,"dd")&" "&UPPER(TEXT(A1,"mmmm"))&" "&YEAR(A1)

  12. Hi, How to change 2-Feb format to 2/2/2010 in excel?

  13. I am trying to edit a document that has the dates listed all in the format of year date month...
    example: 19612404.
    I need the dates to read as 12/04/1961
    Month/Date/ year. Each date month year will be different for the column entries so I am struggling to do a formula for it. Any help thanks

  14. Hi, my excel sheet showing some parts serial number like this 2.40373551027723E+21, it should be a number. i tried to format to number and insert single quote(') in front. but still the same. is there is any way to correct this?

    1. Hi!
      When writing a number with more than 15 digits to a cell in an Excel document, the last digits are replaced with zeros. This problem occurs because Excel has a maximum precision of 15 digits. When writing a long number to a cell, the number is rounded to 15 digits and the number is presented in exponential form. You cannot increase the precision of the representation of numbers in Excel.
      Write long numbers like text. When entering the number, precede the number with a single quotation mark.

  15. Bonjour,

    J'aimerais que lorsque de j'écris jj-mm-aa, il me donne automatiquement jj-mmm-aaaa.
    Par exemple si 03-06-20 j'aimerais qu'il me donne 3 Jun 2020.

    Comment faire?

    Merci

    1. Hello!
      Set a custom date format in the cell

      jj-mmm-aaaa

      I kindly ask you to have a closer look at the article above

  16. I thouted days format was changed ,Tuesday after Thursday, but Wednesday wronged to mention.

  17. Please don't tell me that I only have one solution:

    =DATE(year, month, day)

    =DATE(RIGHT(A1,4),LEFT(A1,2),MID(A1,3,2))

    WRITE in a "SOURCE DATA" column as "text" : 05242021

    My Date column will be identical. Lol.

    If so, let's please tell Microsoft... Um... mmddyyyy is an OK format. :)

  18. Alexander,

    I have searched and done my due diligence to find my answer. Not knowing the answer, I probably am not recognizing that it is in this thread or one of the referenced "Already Answered" threads.

    I like to type the date as mmddyyyy, e.g. 05242021 ... It involves typing 3 fewer symbols... I changed format to mmddyyyy, but that is if I type a date format that Excel recognizes... BUT, I want to type in the mmddyyyy format and have Excel recognize that as a date.

    How? Please. Thank You.

    Cheers, Rick.

    2. Found it, I hope! :) Thanks

      Yes, choose the Format Cells command, select Custom from the Category listbox, and type ##"/"##"/"#### into the Type textbox.

      1. Hi!
        I was unable to replicate your format. However, if this works for you, then you are not recording the date, but the delimited text.

      2. So, close, yet so far... Not my exact solution... Excel wont quite recognize it as a date!

  19. Thank you, cant wait to try it

  20. Hi

    I'm not sure if my request is possible, but I would like to calculate the time difference for a date and time format used within the military. The format used in our Defence Force is 'dd/hh:mm/mmm/yy', displayed/written as '121300Apr21' (24hr). My questions are;
    1. Is it possible for excel to recognise this date/time format, including the month as text?
    2. If so, what formula would I use to calculate the time difference between two dates of this format? Eg - calculate time between 121300May21 and 131730May21

    3. Finally, is it possible for excel to recognise this date and time format displayed in a number of different ways, i.e, with, or without spaces, between the date and time figures from the same spreadsheet list? The list contains dates and times with spaces in following examples;
    a. 12 1300 May 21
    b. 121300 May 21
    c. 12 1300May 21

    Q1&2 are the essential answers I require. Q3, is a nice to have as it will save me time in re-writing a few thousand dates/times already entered. If Q3 is not achievable, then these calculations will be applied from the current date, assuming that Q1&2 are possible.

    Appreciate any assistance, and happy to provide clarity if my questions are confusing - thanks

    1. Hello!
      Excel recognizes your data as text. You can convert this text to date and time using this fromula

      =--(LEFT(A1,2)&"-"&MID(A1,7,3)&"-"&RIGHT(A1,2))+TIME(MID(A1,3,2),MID(A1,5,2),0)

      Apply the date and time format you want to this cell.
      You can change this formula to convert any date from Q3.
      You can convert 121300May21 and 131730May21 in two separate cells and then subtract them. Or use one formula

      =--(LEFT(A2,2)&"-"&MID(A2,7,3)&"-"&RIGHT(A2,2))+TIME(MID(A2,3,2),MID(A2,5,2),0) - (--(LEFT(A1,2)&"-"&MID(A1,7,3)&"-"&RIGHT(A1,2))+TIME(MID(A1,3,2),MID(A1,5,2),0))

  21. My problem is here:

    I am used to typing dates as mm-dd-yy

    When I type in a cell 08-12-21, I want it to be (dd-mmm-yy) which is 12-Aug-21

    But what shows up is 8-Dec-21.

    How do I fix this?

  22. hi sir, i type 4/10 it is automatically changed to Apr-10. I need as it is (4/10).. How can i get it?????

    1. Hello!
      To write a fraction in a cell that has the General format, precede the fraction with zero and a space. For example, to enter 4/10 into a cell, you would type 0 4/10. If you enter 4/10, Excel converts that fraction to a date.

  23. hello, how to change the time format using an excel function, example, converting this format (12:00 AM/PM) to (12-00-00 AM/PM), (12:00:00 AM/PM), (12 AM/PM) thanks

    1. Hello!
      I hope you have studied the recommendations in the tutorial above.
      Use custom time format:

      h:mm:ss AM/PM
      hh AM/PM
      h-mm-ss AM/PM

      1. Hello thanks for the response. I have another question, can you change the format of time using the example problem above by creating an excel function and not by create custom format?

  24. How to change date format from "2020-Apr-27 " to 27-Apr-2020 in excel file

    1. Hello!
      Please check out this article to learn how to convert text to date and number to date.
      I can’t give you a more accurate advice since you didn’t specify which date and time format your Windows uses.

  25. Good day, I have this date formats 13/05/2020, 12/5/2020 in a workbook and I am unable to format the sheet.

    Any Help?

    Thanks

  26. Hello,
    I spend 99% of my Excel time processing timestamped data from SQL Server which include milliseconds.
    My custom Excel format is: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.000
    And it works perfectly but I always have to apply the formatting manually to cells in each sheet and then use format painter to change the other columns.
    I would like to setup Excel so that every time Excel wants to format any cell as any kind of date or time I want Excel to use my custom format, including ms.
    I tried using my Excel format string in Windows regional settings but the .000 for milliseconds is not accepted.
    Is this possible? and if so how?
    Thanks

    1. Hello!
      Unfortunately, the default date and time format in Windows does not use milliseconds. This can be done using a custom format.

  27. Thanks for reply.
    From the list of excel, I used the DOB to find t a person on database system that only dd.mm.yyyy format. So I copy it tang paste on format back to dd/mm/yyyy.

    Regards,

  28. It's works- well done but when I want to copy its came back to dd/dd/yyyy
    thanks

    1. Hi Gufron,

      Since format is applied to cells, not values, you also need to set your custom date format to the cells that you copy the dates to.

  29. It's works- well done.
    thanks

  30. Greeting,

    How to change date format 08/04/2021 into 08.04.2021

    Thanks

  31. Hi! My problem is when I type "Apr 3" in excel and click enter, the date that appears is April 1, 2001. The cell is formatted for the date to appear that way but the actual date that comes out is not April 3, 2021. This is happening on my laptop where I just installed Microsoft Windows 10.

    In my PC, that has Microsoft Windows 10, I do not have this problem with excel. I can type in Apr 3 and April 3, 2021 appears. Please help me solve this issue? Thank you

    1. Hi!
      I recommend checking the regional settings of Windows: Control Panel - Time&Language - Region - Regional format data.

  32. Hello.
    I have a table, 4 columns and a lot of rows with values 0 and 2.
    I need to replace the values like this 0 to 0.4/22 and 2 to 2/22.

    I searched everywhere and I dint find the answer.

    The thing is it auto-transform the text (2/22) into date, or into fractional. I need it to stay text. I have to replace them manual one after each other.

    I have Office 2019 .

    Thank you for your attention.

    1. Hello!
      In the "Replace with" field, write an apostrophe before 2/22. This will show that it is text
      '2/22

      I hope my advice will help you solve your task.

  33. Dear Sir,
    In a excel sheet i have the following problem:
    04-12-81 18:00
    04-12-81 21:00
    13-4-1981 00:00:00
    13-4-1981 03:00:00
    In which first two are incorrect and last two are in correct format. Excel is reading first two as 4 December but actually they are 4 April. How can I correct these errors? I have copied data of around 40 years (1981 to 2020) in a excel sheet and I have to correct the incorrect dates. Please give your valuable suggestions.

    1. Hello!
      To convert the date December 4th to April 12th, use the formula

      =DATE(YEAR(A1),DAY(A1),MONTH(A1)) + TIME(HOUR(A1),MINUTE(A1),SECOND(A1))

      I hope this will help

      1. Thanks Sir. It works. But another problem is that I have a huge data set from 1981 to 2020. How can I filter those incorrect date formats quickly so that I can correct those data.

        1. Hello!
          If I got you right, the formula below will help you with your task:

          =IFERROR(DATE(YEAR(A2),DAY(A2),MONTH(A2)) + TIME(HOUR(A2),MINUTE(A2),SECOND(A2)),DATE(MID(A2,SEARCH("-",A2,4)+1,4), MID(A2,SEARCH("-",A2,1)+1, SEARCH("-",A2,4)-SEARCH("-",A2,1)-1), LEFT(A2,SEARCH("-",A2,1)-1))+TIMEVALUE(RIGHT(A2,8)))

          Hope this is what you need.

  34. Hi! I have an excel file and under the date column that has like this "190916". There is no specification as to what the format is but I am assuming it is in the yy/mm/dd format. I tried formatting it to the mm/dd/yyyy but whenever I try to change all of them, it just goes like this "9/15/2422".

    How can I change it into a proper mm/dd/yyyy format?

    Thank you.

  35. I can't seem to get it from 44256 to 3/1/21 I've clicked everything! plus I have a ton of questions I am using one of their preset ledgers. could this be the problem? Also, side help note question since I've been everywhere and this is so confusing. Is there a place where I can go and someone can look at what I have and maybe walk me through some things? because once it's set I'm good to go! Thanks for all the help everyone, I will talk all that I can get!! (I am using check register with chart) but trying to make it specific for me

  36. how to change date and time format from 05012021 20:54:25 to 01/05/2021 20:54:25

    1. First of all... Alexander, you are amazingly patient and kind!

      Abdulla... I like the "05012021" format because it involves no symbols. Is faster to type, in other words. I have learned that the format you have is: mmddyyyy hh:mm:ss and you want to go to: mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss... You go into Format (Ctrl+1), Number Tab>Custom and Type in... Your date ant time you want is the second. Just type it in and hit return...

      My question for Alexander Son of Trifunt ;) is, I entered mmddyyyy and use that as my "date" representation. However, I want to type in a date as mmddyyyy e.g. 05242021 and have it keep that as a date. Rather than typing in 05/24/2021 and having it represent as 05242021... But it says, as I know you will guess because you have probably ALREADY answered this question, "Dates that are negative or too large display as #### etc." I am guessing it has something to do with changing dates as text or numbers. But I am not clear on this...

      Thank You, Rick.

      1. Hi,
        If you enter 05242021, the number 5242021 will be written. To write 05242021, you need to enter it as text, put the character ` before the numbers. But that still won't be a date.
        You need to use VBA to solve your problem.

  37. I need one column to be Monday then Wednesday then Friday all with the month and year
    and the other column to be Tuesday then Thursday then Saturday all with the month and year

    Is this possible? I've been trying and can't seem to figure it out.

    Thanks.
    Lori

    1. Hello!
      In cell A1, write down the date, which is Monday. For example, February 15th. In cell A2, write down the formula

      =IF(WEEKDAY(A1,2)=5,A1+3,A1+2)

      Copy the formula down the column.
      For Tuesday use the formula

      =IF(WEEKDAY(A1,2)=6,A1+3,A1+2)

      Read more about the WEEKDAY function in this article.
      I hope my advice will help you solve your task.

  38. Hi, thanks for the tutorial, it's really helpful. But i wonder if you can help me on this one:
    i have the date of 1/2/2021 (1 Feb) at my timezone, but excel keep interpreting it as 2 Jan. So i have trouble when filtering, i would like to know how to make excel understand that? I can not change the data now as the input is quite big and spilling all over place. Can you help me? Thank you.

  39. Hello!
    Is there a way to set the default month / year eg. to Feb / 2021 such that when I type '1' in the cell, it would automatically become 1-Feb-2021 instead of something like 1-Jan-1990

  40. Hi I have date format as ( sun 24/1/2021) I need to use a formula to transform it to DD/MM/YY

    Thank you for your support

    1. Hello!
      If I understand your task correctly, the following formula should work for you:

      =DATE(RIGHT(REPLACE(A1,1,SEARCH(" ",A1,1),""),4),MID(REPLACE(A1,1,SEARCH(" ",A1,1),""), SEARCH("/",REPLACE(A1,1,SEARCH(" ",A1,1),""),1)+1, SEARCH("/",REPLACE(A1,1,SEARCH(" ",A1,1),""),4)- SEARCH("/",REPLACE(A1,1,SEARCH(" ",A1,1),""),1)-1), LEFT(REPLACE(A1,1,SEARCH(" ",A1,1),""), SEARCH("/",REPLACE(A1,1,SEARCH(" ",A1,1),""),1)-1))

      Hope this is what you need.

  41. I have an Excel file with mixed date formats in the Date column. Does anyone have a suggestion for a way to flip all the dates to the same format? I need to filter the entire sheet using the date and remove any entries that are more than 24 months old.

    Thank you,

    Here's a sample -

    27/08/2020 8:07:00 AM
    2018-01-11
    30/12/2020 1:34:00 PM
    14/09/2020 12:54:00 PM
    30/10/2020 10:09:00 AM
    22/12/2018 7:20:00 AM
    2020-03-11

    1. Hello!
      If all your data is in date format, select the column and set the format you want.
      Pay attention to the following paragraph of the article above — How to change date format in Excel.
      If the date is written as text (for example 14/09/2020 12:54:00 PM), then use the formula

      =--REPLACE(REPLACE(A1,1,2,MID(A1,4,2)),4,2,LEFT(A1,2))

      I hope it’ll be helpful.

  42. Hello!

    OBJECTIVE:

    My objective is to create a custom number format that can work for phone numbers AND dates inside the same cell.

    EXAMPLE:

    (214) 999-0000 "HOUSE NOTES: PHONE NOTES: (214) 295-0021 (469) 258-5800 (214) 579-5707
    (469) 585-3485 (214) 475-6990 1/14/21 example of phone note 214.395.7623 1/14/21
    (214) 999-0000 example of phone note 469.363.3039 1/14/21 example of phone note MAIL
    LETTER NOTES:"

    EXPLANATION

    On the leftmost "cell", I've applied the following custom number format: (###) ###-####

    However, this format is not applicable on the rightmost cell with text because aside from having phone numbers, it also includes dates and words.

    QUESTION:

    What formula can be used to have all phone numbers in this format: (###) ###-### and also the date in this format: mm/dd/yy, while keeping text as is? (In this order as well: Phone, date, note)

    Any help is greatly valued!! Thank you!

    1. Hi,
      The information you provided is not enough to understand your case and give you any advice.
      You have recorded a long text. What is written in the left cell? What is written in the right cell? What dates and words does it include? How many cells does your example occupy? A detailed description is required.

  43. Hi, I would like to put it as end-Dec-2020. I already change my date format to Mmm-yyyy. How can I add the word 'End' at the front?

    1. Hello!
      You can use custom date format

      "End-"Mmmm-yy

      I hope this will help, otherwise please do not hesitate to contact me anytime.

  44. Hey I have the following issue after converting a csv into regular excel: some of the values (that are supposed to be amounts) , are there as dates, example 11.31 has been converted into Nov 31 BUT if I change the format to number of text then I get the 11628. What can I do?

    1. Hello!
      Unfortunately, without seeing your data it is difficult to give you any advice. You can learn more about Convert CSV to Excel in this article on our blog.
      I hope my advice will help you solve your task.

  45. Would it be possible to include a symbol before and after the date? Example: (01 January 2021). How do I format it to include and open and close parenthesis before and after the date?

    Thank you

    2. Hi Jay,

      Simply include the parentheses in the format code like this: (dd mmmm yyyy)

  46. i need to change the date and make it appear in dd / mm / yyyy form
    For a list of different dates
    What formula can be used to do this?
    July 18, 2015
    November 1, 2000
    etc.

  47. Hi, I'm working with a one drive spreadsheet that is auto generated from a google doc. One of the columns should show 'number of days' so I'd be expecting to see numbers in this column, however what I am seeing is dates. Some of these are post 1900 and I understand from your great description how to convert these to numbers but a lot are showing as pre 1900 e.g. 12/30/1899. Are these just zero values?

  48. Thank you very much
    I had to switch to another computer after the old one kinda died after 10 years. I had Excel 2003.
    When I got Excel 2010 all dates in all excell docs were US and single digit months.
    I got the terrible 2/9/2018 and could not convert is to my beloved format 09/02/2018. Thanks to you It was easy. Just change the language from English US to English UK.

    Thanks

  49. What is the @ symbol for. It is shown in the screen shot in the "Creating a custom date format in Excel" section, and I see it in the Excel Format Cells dialog on my Windows computer, but I can't seem to find out what it represents. Can you tell me?

    1. Hi,
      The @ symbol specifies where the text entered in the cell should appear.
      Ecample —

      "Income is "@

      I hope it’ll be helpful.

  50. I am entering a date of 11/12/2020 in a cell. I am currently using custom format to display the date as 12-Nov Thu. I would like to display the date as 12-Nov Th. Is there a way to show this display with only the first two letters of the day?

    1. Hello!
      This format is not available in Excel. However, you can convert this date to text and remove the last letter.

      =LEFT(E1,LEN(E1)-1)

      I hope my advice will help you solve your task.

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