Comments on: How to convert text to date and number to date in Excel

The tutorial explains how to use Excel functions to convert text to date and how to turn text strings into dates in a non-formula way. You will also learn how to quickly change a number to date format. Continue reading →

Comments page 4. Total comments: 725

  1. Hey,

    I need to covert 20200818 (Aug 18 - 2020) to be 08/18/2020 (mm/dd/yyyy) using a single formula!
    Please help!

    1. Hi!
      Pay attention to the following paragraph of the article above – How to convert 8-digit number to date in Excel.
      It covers your case completely.

  2. How could I convert this to date? JAN01/19
    I'd be forever grateful!

  3. I have two strings.
    #1: 72222 and need it to be 7/22/22
    #2: 120121 and need it to be 12/1/21

    Thank you!

  4. hello
    i have a set of text 551231-02-4556 in which i would extract the first 6 character to be converted to date value result to be 31-12-1955

    any solution to this?
    Thank you

      1. Thank you very much, it works, great.

  5. Hello, Mr. Alexander.. Is there a way to swap the data and month VALUE? Not just the formatting. When I paste date values from a text file or PDF, Excel auto-interprets the values incorrectly. I.e. 02-03-2019 is imported as 03rd Feb instead of 02nd Mar. Simply changing the formatting does not fix this problem.

  6. I have date formatted field(12/20/1984) in excel, when i am saving data as xml. Date is converted to number. What i need to do in excel to save this as date. I used below custom validation to allow field string(Delete) and date

    =OR(AND(ISNUMBER(J3),LEFT(CELL("format",J3),1)="D"),J3="Delete")

    1. Hi!
      Excel stores the date as a number. The .xml format does not have a date format. Save the file as an Excel file (.xlsx) and then you can write the date as a date, not as a number.

      1. Final data I need in XML . I am not clear on statement - Save the file as an Excel file (.xlsx) and then you can write the date as a date, not as a number. Can you give me one example.

          1. Thank You Alex.

  7. How do I convert this date

    Jan-01-1985 TO 1985-01-01

    1. Hello!
      To convert text to date, extract the desired characters using the substring functions.

      =DATE(MID(A1,FIND("~",SUBSTITUTE(A1,"-","~",2),1)+1,4), VLOOKUP(LEFT(A1,3), {"JAN",1;"FEB",2;"MAR",3;"APR",4;"May",5;"JUN",6;"JUL",7;"AUG",8;"Sep",9;"OCT",10;"NOV",11;"DEC",12},2,0), MID(A1,FIND("-",A1,1)+1,2))

      Then use DATE function. Set the cell to the custom date format that you need. For example, "yyyy-mm-dd".

      To convert text to date, you can also use the Text to Date tool.
      It is available as a part of our Ultimate Suite for Excel that you can install in a trial mode and check how it works for free.

  8. Hi, I have this exact date values in my worksheet:
    a. 10/06/2022 8:00:48 p. m. ----> Type: Date ---> Format: d/mm/yyyy h:mm:ss AM/PM
    b. 10/06/2022 8:00:48 p. m. ----> Type: General ---> Format: d/mm/yyyy h:mm:ss AM/PM

    When I compare a=b the result is FALSE. I can't convert b. to date but I'm seeing the exact same values.
    Any suggestions would be very welcome.

  9. Hi I have this data of date from CSV 2022-06-12T20:30:59.611Z may I know how to convert it to Date & Time in excel?

  10. Current format: 12 25 20 22
    How can I convert this to 12/25/2022??

  11. You own a Altroz XM+ 1.2 P car no UK00AA0000;you had serviced your vehicle from OBERAI MOTORS (0000000-Sv&Pa-Dehradun-OberaiM)3 days ago on 29-APR-22,which was a Second Free Service. I require your feedback regarding the same. I Need 29-APR-22 separately from this sentence using a formula in excel. Plz help out.

  12. My formula is not working and not sure what I am doing incorrectly:
    Original w/formula needs to be
    9122004 12/9/2004 9/12/2004

    Here is the formula used:

    =DATE(RIGHT(O434,4),MID(O434,2,2),LEFT(O434,1))

    Any help is appreciated

      1. I am looking to get the out put of 9/12/2004

  13. Monday, February 21, 2022
    WANT IN 02-21-2022

  14. hello
    i typed so many dates
    and i suddenly received a combination of numbers and text in the cell, and I need to return the value to date
    these are examples of the values I'm receiving
    30637514H
    310038084H

  15. Thank you! Great help!

  16. HELP? There is no way to convert this "2022-FEB" from text to a date. I have 40 charts to build each where, and the exports always put the months/years in text format. I am spending time manually retyping the dates for them to work. Is there no formula to make the date a REAL date in excel, All the methods online wont work for this?

    1. Hello!
      Here is the formula that should work perfectly for you:

      =DATE(LEFT(A1,4),VLOOKUP(RIGHT(A1,3), {"JAN",1;"FEB",2;"MAR",3;"APR",4;"May",5;"JUN",6;"JUL",7;"AUG",8;"Sep",9;"OCT",10;"NOV",11;"DEC",12}, 2,0),1)

      You can learn more about DATE function in Excel in this article on our blog.

  17. Hi! Could someone help me if there is a formula to convert general format 07-12-2021 to a date format of 07-Dec-2021? I tried changing the format but it doesn’t work. Thank you!

  18. This blog is much helpful. Thanks Ablebits team. Especially Mr. Alexander Trifuntov.

  19. How can I convert a lot code into a date? Lot code is XX02282A which iquals 02/28/2022 which is an expiry date: PPMMDDYS
    XX - producing plant code
    02 - month
    28 - day
    2 for the year
    A - producing shift

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

      =DATE("202"&MID(A1,7,1),MID(A1,3,2),MID(A1,5,2))

      You can learn more about DATE function in Excel in this article on our blog.

  20. I have a column of dates as e.g. 31 Mar, 2022 and have been using the formula =DATE(RIGHT(E4,4), MONTH(DATEVALUE(LEFT(E4,3)&"1")), MID(E4,5,FIND(",",E4)-FIND(" ",E4)-1)). It's a weekly report that I convert but lately it has been throwing back #VALUE!. Do you have any idea why one week it will work and another it won't. I can't see any change in the original dates including any spaces. Thank you.

    1. Hello!
      This formula converts the text "Mar 31, 2022" into a date. To convert the text "31 Mar, 2022" to date, you can use the DATEVALUE function, as described in the article above.

  21. Importing a text file date shows as per left column... desired output in right column.. Any formula recommendations to get the desired result? (issue is that excel drops the zero in front of the first string)

    String text Desired Answer
    7122021 12/7/2021
    25102021 10/25/2021

  22. Hi guys
    Any way to convert 2m 19d (2 months and 19 days...!) to an excel recognised date format?
    I realise it is the most ridiculous export, please help!

    1. Hello!
      The information you provided is not enough to understand your case and give you any advice. There are a different number of days in a month. What should be the result? March 19, 1900?

      1. I have a similar request for help. My Excel sheet has the length of service written as "1 year 2 months 28 days". Can I write a formula to convert that to total number of days? And then can Excel convert the number of days to determine the exact hire date.

  23. How to convert this text value to date only:
    Wed Sep 01 00:07:00 UTC 2021

    1. Hello!
      The formula below to solve your task:

      =DATE(RIGHT(A1,4),VLOOKUP(MID(A1,5,3), {"JAN",1;"FEB",2;"MAR",3;"APR",4;"May",5;"JUN",6;"JUL",7;"AUG",8;"Sep",9;"OCT",10;"NOV",11;"DEC",12},2,0), MID(A1,9,2))+ TIMEVALUE(MID(A1,12,8))

  24. Hi , I have a question.
    Emp ID Name Tenure Year Tenure Month Workout Core Time Productivity Productivity Q2 Productivity Q3 Workout Q2 Workout Q3 Time Worked
    20 Pat 2 10 1064.99 893.65 119.17% 119.17% 120.82% 1064.99 1079.71 1008.52
    30 Him 5 9 502.15 421.47 119.14% 119.14% 120.82% 502.15 509.22 469
    32 Piy 2 7 825.75 697.75 118.34% 118.34% 120.82% 825.75 843.04 926
    34 Sak 2 4 939.56 811.97 115.71% 115.71% 120.82% 939.56 981.03 950.6
    33 Rav 8 8 917.66 803.18 114.25% 114.25% 120.82% 917.66 970.41 943.38
    28 Dee 2 9 861.31 754.28 114.19% 114.22% 120.82% 861.54 911.30 902.3
    35 Sam 6 2 907.71 807.12 112.46% 114.22% 120.82% 921.92 975.17 908.45
    31 Om 9 0 892.36 797.5 111.89% 114.22% 120.82% 910.94 963.56 938.4
    19 Log 5 8 834.71 788.82 105.82% 114.22% 120.82% 900.97 953.01 908.28

    Based on this data I want to get maximum and minimum potential benefits from Productivity @ quartile 2 and quartile 3.
    Productivity baseline = sum of workout / sum of core time.
    Productivity at quartile 2 = total workout at Quartile 2 / core time and
    Productivity at quartile 3 = total workout at Quartile 3 / core time and
    and productivity variance

    can you please help
    thanks, Maddy

    1. Hi!
      If I understand correctly, your task is to find the sum of the column and divide the numbers. This has nothing to do with the topic of the article. If you have a question about a specific formula, ask it in the required section.

  25. SAMPLE…
    DATA A1 6
    A2 EA
    A3 11/04/21

    USED FORMULA: =CONCATENATE("SHORTAGE OF ",ABS(A1),"(",A2,")",", ISSUED ON ",A3," (NO VARIANCE)"
    OUTPUT : SHORTAGE OF 6(EA), ISSUED ON 44297 (NO VARIANCE)

    How to convert the value format 44297 to date format using the formula.

    1. formula:
      =TEXT(44297;"mm/dd/yy")
      results in:
      00/dd/yy
      Can you pls help?

      1. Hi!
        The date in Excel is stored as a number. But you must provide to the TEXT function not a number, but a date. Use the DATE function:

        =TEXT(DATE(2021;4;11);"mm/dd/yy")

        I hope it’ll be helpful.

    2. Hello!
      To convert a number to a date in text form, replace 44297 with the formula:

      TEXT(44297,"mm/dd/yy")

      1. Thanks for the help... Happy.

  26. Hello,
    The date in csv document was exported as the following:
    1.57775E+12 (it displays as 1577750400000) in the formula field.
    The cells with the dates are in General format.
    How can I convert such number in the Date?
    All the dates supposed to be Dec.31 of various years.

    Thank you very much for your help!

  27. Hi Alexander, I have a text format like this 15/06/2021 and I want to convert as date 2021/09/22.

  28. I have data from an export that gave me dates formatted as text or general (applying other pre-formatted date styles has no effect): 960212 (YYMMDD) and I need to convert it to a date in this format: 02/12/1996 (MM/DD/YYYY).
    Any help for this?

    Ken

      1. You are a genius, thank you so much. Was struggling a lot because of this.

  29. Hi, I would like to convert this date and time string (Nov 15, 2019 02:34 PM) exported from a system to a valid date field in excel so that I can use the =WORKINGDAYS formula. Many thanks Laura

    1. Hello!
      How to convert your text to date and time, see this comment.
      I hope I answered your question. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

      1. Hi Alexander, the formula works however, it returns a #VALUE error when the date is a single date eg. 4th rather than 14th of a month.
        Jan 4, 2021 09:22 AM returns #VALUE!
        Jan 15, 2021 08:27 AM returns 15/01/2021 as expected.
        Can you help me identify what in the formula needs to change or if there is a second step I need to complete. The WORKINGDAYS formula works well on the result

        1. Hi!
          I wrote this formula based on the description you provided in your original comment. Please note that if you’d provided me with the precise and detailed description of your task from the very beginning, I’d have created a different formula that would have worked for your case.

          =DATE(MID(A1,FIND("~",SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","~",2),1)+1,4), VLOOKUP(LEFT(A1,3), {"JAN",1;"FEB",2;"MAR",3;"APR",4;"May",5;"JUN",6;"JUL",7;"AUG",8;"Sep",9;"OCT",10;"NOV",11;"DEC",12},2,0), MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,1)+1,SEARCH(",",A1,1)-5))

          1. Thank you for your help.

  30. Hello all,

    I have a question, I get amount of data as a text genereated in .csv file, for e.g. "02-NOV-18" I would like to convert this as a date in excel format "yyyy-mm-dd". I was trying to use text as a column method, but nothing change, or when I use formula =Value or date.value nothing also change. Someone can help me with that ? Thanks in advance

  31. I WANT TO CONVERT A DATE INTO A DAY EXAMPLE 28/02/1968 IN A GRAPH I WANT TO HAVE ONLY 28 THE LABLE THE THE GRAPH AS BELOW FREBRUARY

  32. Hello, my question is how can i convert text to set as date example 12232021 >>> 12/23/2021

    1. Hi!
      Read the article above carefully and pay attention to the paragraph: How to convert 8-digit numbers to date in Excel.

  33. What is the equivalent function in excel of the "to_date" in Google Sheets?

    Thanks in advance!

  34. I need to convert a text string with military time and date to number so that can calculate total time in minutes. Its currently in hhmm ddmmmyyyyy (i.e start 2345 04JUL2020 stop 0231 05JUL2020). I would appreciate any help.

    1. Hello!
      Please use the following formula/the formula below to solve your task:

      =DATE(RIGHT(A1,4),VLOOKUP(MID(A1,8,3), {"JAN",1;"FEB",2;"MAR",3;"APR",4;"May",5;"JUN",6;"JUL",7;"AUG",8;"Sep",9;"OCT",10;"NOV",11;"DEC",12},2,0), MID(A1,6,2)) + TIME(LEFT(A1,2),MID(A1,3,2),0)

      1. Good Morning Alexander

        This formula was just what I needed.

        Thanks for the tip.

        --Mark

  35. I have this text output from an sql query, but I need to convert it to date so it can be sorted by date and time. Apr 14 2021 8:15AM. I would appreciate your advice.

    1. Hello!
      I believe the following formula will help you solve your task:

      =DATE(MID(A1,FIND("~",SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","~",2),1)+1,4), VLOOKUP(LEFT(A1,3), {"JAN",1;"FEB",2;"MAR",3;"APR",4;"May",5;"JUN",6;"JUL",7;"AUG",8;"Sep",9;"OCT",10;"NOV",11;"DEC",12},2,0), MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,1)+1,2)) + TIMEVALUE(MID(A1,LEN(A1)-6,5)&" "&RIGHT(A1,2))

      Set the date and time format in this cell.

  36. Thank you for such an informative article!
    Everything one would wanna know about date settings in Excel has been provided beautifully in this article.

  37. Hello there,

    Hope you are doing well. We normally received our date in the format of 16-July-2021. Would it be possible to convert the original date into a value like YYYYMMDD (example 20210716)? I tried to use the custom formatting option to give me YYYYMMDD and while it does display the right value, the formula bar still shows the slash units (example 2021/07/16). Is it possible to remove the slashes in the formula bar?

    Thank you for your time!

  38. Hello there,

    Hope you are doing well. We normally received our date in the format of 16-July-2021. Would it be possible to convert the original date into a value like YYYYMMDD (example 20210716)? I tried to use the custom formatting option to give me YYYYMMDD and while it does display the right value, the formula bar still shows the slash units (example 2021/07/16). Is it possible to remove the slashes in the formula bar?

    Thank you for your time!

    1. Hello!
      You can learn more about convert date to text in Excel in this article on our blog.

      =TEXT(D1,"yyyymmdd")

      The formula bar shows the real value. If the value is written as a date, then you cannot remove the slash in the formula bar.

  39. Tried various option to change text date and time to real date and time but no luck. 13/6/2021 9:30:00 PM
    Can u help on it

  40. Hi there,

    We get a date in text format (for example April 12 2002) - is it possible to covert this to the date format DD-MMM-YY (for example 12-APR-02.

    Thank you

  41. Hi sir,

    i want to create a format for particular cells.
    In that cell if i type 26062021as a text by pressing enter i want as a date 26/06/2021 in the same cell.
    is it possible?

  42. Hi,

    We get a date in text format in dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss format from Application when we download it into excel. I need to convert this into Date in mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss format. For example date is in text format (30/06/2021 11:53:32) (dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss). I need to convert it into Date as 06/30/2021 11:53:32) into Excel. I understand that if date is coming from application in dd/mm/yyyy format and if your system time on which you are opening and using excel is not in dd/mm/yyyy format then excel does not recognize it as date. Do we need to change the system date format using Language preference to make it work?

    1. Hello!
      The formula below to solve your task:

      =--(MID(A2, SEARCH("/",A2) + 1, SEARCH("/",A2,SEARCH("/",A2)+1) - SEARCH("/",A2) - 1)&"/"&LEFT(A2, SEARCH("/",A2,1)-1)&MID(A2,SEARCH("/",A2,SEARCH("/",A2)+1),100))

      We have a tool that can solve your task in a couple of clicks - Ablebits Tools - Text to data. It is available as a part of our Ultimate Suite for Excel that you can install in a trial mode and check how it works for free.

      1. Thanks Alexander for your quick reply and the formula. I tried the formula that you shared but it looks like it gives result in text format only. I need that results in Date format. Can you please help?

          1. I have tried to do format cell with the help of Custom formatting with mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss. but it did not work. As I understand to distinguish date and text date is date will be right aligned while text date will be left aligned and for text dates If several text dates are selected, the Status Bar only shows Count. which is the same in my case as after applying the formula that you shared and applying format cell on that. If I tried to run other Date functions on that cell it is giving Value error.

            Earlier I was able to get the desired results but for that I need to use three cells with different formula to get the Date in mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss in Date format. That's why I requested your help if that can be done with single formula.

            1. Hi!
              My system date format is mm/dd/yyyy. The formula works for me and returns the date. Check if the formula was copied correctly if there is a double minus at the beginning. Use the program that I recommended to you.

              1. Hi Alexander,

                After changing Language preference to English (United Kingdom) which changes my system date to dd/mm/yyyy which is matching with text date dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss on excel, Formula is working as expected. Thanks a lot for your help and providing feedback patiently.

              2. Hi Alexander,

                my system date format is m/d/yyyy. I missed to add double minus at the beginning. After adding double minus it is showing the result in Date format however it shows the date in the same format for date till 12/06/2021 hh:mm:ss like dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss and when I choose custom formatting to dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss it converts in into 06/12/2021 hh:mm:ss.

                As soon as I choose date 13/06/2021 hh:mm:ss and later dates, formula starts giving value error. so it looks like it is not picking date greater than 13th. considering 13 as month?

  43. Hi my question is simple, please solve this!

    Problem: number format = 05/03/2017
    when you change the above no. format to U.S. date format MM/DD/YY, the result is 03/05/2017. This is 05th of March 2017 as per the format, but the actual date for me is 03rd of May 2017. I want to convert the number 05/03/2017 to US format MM/DD/YY that should give me 05/03/2017 and not 03/05/2017, I hope my question is clear? Awaiting for any help!

    1. Hello!
      I didn't really understand what is your start date and what date you want to get. But this formula should help

      =DATEVALUE(TEXT(A1,"dd/mm/yyyy"))
      or
      =DATEVALUE(TEXT(A1,"mm/dd/yyyy"))

  44. Need to convert to date
    15AUG21V40528

    1. Hello!
      I’m not sure I got you right since the description you provided is not entirely clear. However, it seems to me that the formula below will work for you:

      =--LEFT(A1,7)

      Set the date format in the cell

  45. I have given date of 20200911043955

    How to change it to date?

    1. =DATE(LEFT(B1,4),MID(B1,5,2),RIGHT(B1,2)) this should help assuming given is a text form of "yyyymmddhhmmss"

  46. Hi,

    I have a column of data. One column named Data Changed but the values under are 2.02009E+13. How can I changed this to Date Format?

    1. Hello!
      Pay attention to the following paragraph of the article above: How to convert number to date in Excel - How to convert 8-digit number to date in Excel. Your number is too long to display in normal format. Look in the formula bar and you will see it in full. You can use the formula from this paragraph.

  47. Hello , i have dates like this ; 12/03/2021 22:49:46 and 13/03/2021 02:59:02
    this are written in text.

    When i use formula : =TEXT(Test!A2648,"yyyyddmm,hh:mm:ss") i am getting 20210312,22:49:46 and it is correct
    but if i use same formula on 13/03/2021 02:59:02 i am getting the same text, no like on the first one.
    i tried to change yyyyddmm to yyyymmdd , tried to add / but nothing. can you help me?

    1. Hello!
      Your dates are written in dd/mm/yy hh:mm:ss format as text. The date of March 12 turns into December 3 for you. The second date does not change since month 13 does not exist. Use the guidelines above to convert your text to the correct date. And then apply a custom format.
      I recommend reading this guide: I recommend reading this guide: How to change date format in Excel and create custom formatting

      If something is still unclear, please feel free to ask.

  48. I have this problem:
    I received a file with this date format 13/04/2021,which i need to be shown as 4/13/2021.
    Text format wont allow me to change it.
    I tried the formula =DATE(YEAR($A1),DAY($A1),MONTH($A1) and it worked on a string like 12/4/2021, but when April appeared as 04 it didnt work.

    1. Hello!
      If your date is written as text, I recommend using the instructions in this article: How to split text in Excel using formulas.

      =DATE(RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2) - SEARCH("/", A2, SEARCH("/", A2) + 1)),MID(A2, SEARCH("/",A2) + 1, SEARCH("/",A2,SEARCH("/",A2)+1) - SEARCH("/",A2) - 1),LEFT(A2, SEARCH("/",A2,1)-1))

      Hope this is what you need.

      We have a tool that can solve your task in a couple of clicks - Ablebits Tools - Text to data. It is available as a part of our Ultimate Suite for Excel that you can install in a trial mode and check how it works for free.

  49. Hello, I am trying to convert this type into a date format in Excel.

    9/9/2020 12:53:42 PM -05:00

    I used to use this: =DATEVALUE(MID(C2,1,10))+TIMEVALUE(MID(C2,12,8))-TIMEVALUE("5:00")
    but it isn't working for me. Any thoughts?

    1. Hello!
      I believe the following formula will help you solve your task:

      =DATEVALUE(MID(C2,1,8)) + TIMEVALUE(MID(C2,10,11)) - TIMEVALUE("5:00")

      I hope it’ll be helpful.

    2. Hi

      I have applied this formula: =DATE(RIGHT(A4,4),MONTH(DATEVALUE(LEFT(A4,3)&"1")),MID(A4,5,FIND(",",A4,5)-5)) but it has applied to first 2 dates
      Jan 2, 2017
      Jan 02, 2017
      I want to write a single formula to convert them into an appropriate date format for all the dates. Please suggest.

      1. Hi,
        Unfortunately, it is impossible to convert all your values to a date using one formula. Your values contain a different order of dates.

  50. Hello,
    I want to write a single formula to convert them into an appropriate date format for the below all the dates.

    Jan 2, 2017
    Jan 02, 2017
    Jan 2 2017
    Jan 02 2017
    Jan 2, 17
    Jan 02, 17
    Jan 2 17
    Jan 02 17
    2 Jan 17
    2 Jan 2017
    02 Jan 17
    02 Jan 2017
    2, Jan 17
    2, Jan 2017
    02, Jan 17
    02, Jan 2017

    Could you please suggest me the single formula for the above dates.
    Thank you so much in advance for the help.

    1. Hello!
      I hope you have studied the recommendations in the tutorial above. It contains answers to your question. Also read the comments and answers to previously asked questions. For example, this comment. Or this one.

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