How to change Google Sheets date format and convert dates to numbers and text

Dates are an inevitable part of Google Sheets. And like many other concepts of spreadsheets, they require a bit of learning.

In this tutorial, you will find out how Google stores dates and how you can format them for your better convenience. Some date formats are offered to you by spreadsheets while others should be created from scratch. There are even a couple of handy functions for the task.

I also describe a couple of ways to convert your dates to numbers and text if necessary.

How Google Sheets formats dates

First things first: before any activities related to dates in spreadsheets, it's crucial to understand the core principles of how dates work.

For its internal database, Google Sheets stores all dates as integer numbers. Not sequences of a day, month, and year as we got used to seeing, but simple integers:

  • 1 for December 31, 1899
  • 2 for January 1, 1900
  • 102 for April 11, 1900 (100 days after January 1, 1900)
  • and so on.

Unlike Excel that cannot store dates as negative numbers, in Google, for dates prior to December 31, 1899, the numbers will be negative:

  • -1 for December 29, 1899
  • -2 for December 28, 1899
  • -102 for September 19, 1899
  • etc.

Regardless of how Google Sheets formats dates for you to see in cells, spreadsheets always store them as integers. It's an automatic Google Sheets date format that helps to treat dates correctly.

Tip. The same goes for time units – they are merely decimals for your table:

  • .00 for 12:00 AM
  • .50 for 12:00 PM
  • .125 for 3:00 AM
  • .573 for 1:45 PM
  • etc.

A date paired with time is kept as an integer with decimal places:

  • 31,528.058 is April 26, 1986, 1:23 AM
  • 43,679.813 is August 2, 2019, 7:30 PM

Change date format in Google Sheets to another locale

Another important thing to keep in mind is your spreadsheet locale.

The locale is what presets your Google Sheets date format based on your region. Thus, if you're currently in the US, 06-Aug-2019 will be put as 8/6/2019 in your sheet, while for the UK it'll be 6/8/2019.

To ensure the correct calculations, it's vital to have the correct locale set, especially if the file was created in another country:

  1. Go to File > Settings in the Google Sheets menu.
  2. Find Locale under the General tab and pick the desired location from the drop-down list: Change your spreadsheet locale to ensure the correct Google Sheets date format.

Tip. As a bonus, you can also specify your time zone here to record your file history in it.

Note. The locale doesn't change the language of your Sheets. However, the date formatting will be applied to the entire spreadsheet. Everyone who works with it will see the changes, no matter their place on the globe.

How to change date format in Google Sheets

If dates in your tables are formatted inconsistently or all you can see is strange sets of numbers instead, don't panic. You simply need to change the date format in your Google Sheets using built-in instruments.

Default Google Sheets date format

  1. Select all cells you'd like to format.
  2. Go to Format > Number in the spreadsheet menu and pick Date to see the date only or Date time to get both date and time in a cell: How to format date in Google Sheets.

The integers successfully turn into the format that you'll recognize at a glance. These are default Google Sheets date formats: Automatic format (integers) vs. date format.

Tip. You can find the same formats if you click on the 123 icon on the spreadsheet toolbar: Another way to change date format in Google Sheets.

Custom date formats

If you don't like how Google Sheets formats dates by default, I won't blame you. Luckily, there's plenty of room to improvise thanks to custom date formats.

You can access them from the same Google Sheets menu: Format > Number > Custom date and time: Google Sheets custom date and time formats.

You will see the window with lots of different custom date formats available. Whichever one you chose and apply, your dates will look the same: Apply custom formats from the list.

If you're still unhappy with the appearance of your dates, you can tailor your own custom date format:

  1. Select the cells you want to format.
  2. Go to Format > Number > Custom date and time.
  3. Place the cursor into the field at the top that contains the date units and delete everything with your Backspace or Delete keys: Remove the existing custom date format.
  4. Click the arrow to the right of the field and pick the unit you'd like to have first. Don't forget to type the separator afterwards.

    Repeat till all the necessary units are added (no worries, you'll be able to add or remove them later): Add as many units to your custom date format as you need.

  5. Notice that each unit has double arrows to its right. Click them and you'll be able to adjust the exact way to display the value.

    Here's what I can choose for Day: Choose how the day should look in your date format.

    This way, you can edit all values, insert additional and delete obsolete ones. You are free to separate the units with various characters including commas, slashes, and dashes.

  6. Once you're ready, click Apply.

Here's what format I've created and how my dates look now: Google Sheets custom date format anew.

QUERY function for Google Sheets to format dates

There's one more way to change date format in Google Sheets – with a formula, of course. Since this is not the first time of me showing QUERY to you, I'm starting to think of it as a real cure-all for spreadsheets. :)

I have an example table where I track the shipment of a few orders: My table with shipped orders.

I want to change the date format in column B. Here's my QUERY formula:

=QUERY(A1:C7,"select * format B 'd-mmm-yy (ddd)'")

  • first, I specify the range of my entire table – A1:C7
  • then I'm asking the formula to return all columns – select *
  • and at the same time re-format column B the way I put into the formula – format B 'd-mmm-yy (ddd)'

The formula works like a charm. It returns my entire table and changes date format in column B: Change date format in Google Sheets with the QUERY function.

As you may have noticed, to change the date format via the formula, I used special codes that represent different looks of days, months, and years. If you're not familiar with them, here's a list of these codes for dates:

Code Description Example
d Day without a leading zero for 1-9 7
dd Day with a leading zero for 1-9 07
ddd Day as an abbreviation Wed
dddd Day as a full name Wednesday
m
(if not preceded or followed by
hours or seconds)		 Month without a leading zero 8
mm
(if not preceded or followed by
hours or seconds)		 Month with a leading zero 08
mmm Month as an abbreviation Aug
mmmm Month as a full name August
mmmmm First letter of the month A
y
or
yy		 Two digit year 19
yyy
or
yyyy		 Full numeric year 2019

Tip. If you'd like to supply your date format with time as well, you need to add codes for time units. You will find the full list of time codes in this guide.

Using these codes, you can format the dates in so many ways:

  • Get the hold of the year, month, or day only:

    =QUERY(A1:C7,"select * format B 'yyyy'") Use QUERY to return the year only.

  • Return the day, month, and the day of the week:

    =QUERY(A1:C7,"select * format B 'dd mmmm, dddd'") Convert date to day of week, day and month.

By the way, what date format have you got used to? :)

Google Sheets: convert date to number

In case you need to see numbers instead of dates, one of the methods below will be useful.

Convert date to number by changing the format

  1. Select those cells with dates that you want to convert to numbers.
  2. Go to Format > Number and this time pick Number among other options.
  3. Voila – all selected dates have turned into numbers that represent them: Convert Date format to Number format.

DATEVALUE function for Google Sheets

Another way for Google Sheets to convert date to number is by using the DATEVALUE function:

=DATEVALUE(date_string)

where date_string represents any date in the known for spreadsheets format. The date should be put in double-quotes.

For example, I want to convert August 10, 2023 to a number. All the formulas below will return the same result: 45148.

=DATEVALUE("August 10, 2023")
=DATEVALUE("2023-8-10")
=DATEVALUE("8/10/2023") DATEVALUE formulaswith different format returns the same number for the same date.

Tip. If you're not sure whether Google Sheets understands the format you're about to enter, try typing the date into another cell first. If the date is recognized, it'll be aligned to the right.

You can also fill your cells with dates in one column, and then reference them in your formulas in another column:

=DATEVALUE(A2)

Google Sheets: convert date to text

Converting dates to text in spreadsheets is the task for the TEXT function:

=TEXT(number,format)
  • number – regardless of what number, date, or time you give to the function, it will return it as text.
  • format – the text will be formatted the way you specify in the formula.

    Tip. To set the format correctly, use the same codes as you did for the QUERY function.

The real-data formula may look like this:

=TEXT("2/7/2023","YYYY-MM-DD")

Here's how I converted my date – 2/7/2023 - to text and changed the format at the same time: Google Sheets: convert dates to text and change the format.

Google Sheets: convert text to date

Sometimes your dates may appear in a way that Google Sheets doesn't understand at all. And it doesn't really matter whether they are imported or you just fancy a certain view: Some custom formats that Google Sheets doesn't understand at once.

Unless you specify a custom format for each cell or change the locale of your spreadsheet, these dates will be formatted as text by default. You won't be able to use them in formulas or other calculations.

But here's the easiest solution for your Google Sheets: convert text to dates using the Power Tools add-on. It's literally a single radio button among other convert tools. Power Tools: convert text to dates radio button.


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The tool recognizes all these custom formats in your Google Sheets and converts text to date so all cells become consistent and can be used for further reference: Google Sheets: Convert text to date using the Power Tools add-on.

This is it! I hope by now you know how to change date format in Google Sheets and convert dates to numbers or text. Feel free to share other cool ways in the comments section below. ;)

Table of contents

207 comments

  1. I have a sheet that receives data mapped directly from a web form. The date/time format of the form is dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss. I want to format the date and remove the time but Google always interprets the first date number as the month. I changed the locale to UK, but it still recognizes the dd as mm, so when I try to change the date format to dd-MMM-yyyy, 08/05/2024 becomes 5 Aug 2024 instead of 8 May 2024. What can I do?

    • Hello SJ Thomas,

      For me to be able to help you, I need to look at your spreadsheet. How you import the data, the formats applied - everything matters. Please share it (or its editable copy) with us (support@apps4gs.com) and specify where the dates are.
      Note. We keep that Google account for file sharing only and don't monitor its Inbox. Do not email there. Once you share the file, just confirm by replying to this comment.

      I'll look into it and try to help.

  2. How do I convert date format mo/dd/yyyy so leading zeros show? For example... I want to convert 2/7/2023 to 02/07/2023. Some of my cells show leading zeros but I cannot seem to duplicate that fomatting for rest of the cells.

  3. Hi Natalia, I have a sheet that in a column, formatted as date time, presents some values in the format year/month/day hours:minutes:seconds other day/month/year hours:minutes:seconds and I can't convert everything into a single format (yyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss) with none of the methods you explained above...
    Can you help me?
    Thank you
    Enzo

    • Hi Enzo,

      I'm sorry but your task is not clear. Please describe it in detail specifying some records you already have and how you want them to actually look.

  4. Hi! So I am new to using Google Sheets. I am a Microsoft Excel user and would consider myself a bit better than a novice. I have been able to figure out how to set up a date formula in Excel that does not require me to type a forward slash but always displays it with one. I cannot seem to figure out how to do that in Google Sheets. I have the selected column cells set with custom date of mm/dd/yyyy, but when I type 02041999 it is only displaying as regular numbers, not as 02/04/1999. How do I fix that because I simply do not want to have to type the forward slash every time.

    Thanks in advance for your replies!

    • Hi Susan,

      In Google Sheets, it's impossible to make it treat numbers without separators (like slashes or dashes) as a date. In your case, I'd advise using a helper column with a formula that will turn your numeric string into a date:
      =DATE(RIGHT(A1, 4), LEFT(A1, 2), MID(A1, 3, 2))

      Just make sure you enter numbers with an apostrophe at the beginning: '02041999
      And format the column with formulas as a date.

  5. When I use a date in a cell with a function like adding two columns into one column I get integral numbers not the standard did-mm-yyyy

    =TO_DATE(45388)
    This converts the integral number to the correct date format 4/6/2024

    Is there any other basic solution here.

  6. Dear
    I defined a new time format to be able to calculate the differences between times (mm:ss.00) but I can't apply to a selection of cells.
    I can do it but if I look in the menu it's not chosen as format and my formula (difference in duration between 2 times) doesn't work because the cell contains text it says... Can someone help?

    • Hello Jana Vanden,

      For me to be able to help you, please specify the exact formula you're using to calculate the time difference and the time format you're trying to apply.

  7. I've got a csv file with the dates in mm/dd/yyyy format, and when I import it into my (UK region) Sheet it comes out as the same format, even when I do a Format>Number>Date on the column. I can do a regex transform, but is there a simple way of getting the dates to display in UK format?

  8. I'm using scripts (getValues and setValues) to copy values (including dates) to an external document.

    I noticed my document timestamp was incorrect, so I changed my document settings to the correct timezone.

    Ever since then my scripts are adjusting the date before copying it, and all the transferred dates are out by 1.
    How can I fix this?

  9. Hi All,
    How to Display Days or Month in Capital letters, like - MON, TUE, JAN, DEc etc. Thanks

  10. saya punya masalah dengan formula TEXT untuk seluruh Kolom A:A, dimana kolom yang kosong ikut dikonfersi menjadi text. berikut formula saya =TEXT(A:A;"dd mmmm yyyy"). saya ingin kolom yang kosong pada kolom A tidak ikut berubah menjadi TEXT

    • Hello Rolan,

      I'm sorry, we provide assistance in English only. The TEXT function affects only the column where you put it. It doesn't format the data directly in your referred column A. So you can just select column A and apply the desired format from the Google Sheets menu.

  11. Hi Natalia,

    I've been through all your excellent and well explained responses, but don't seem to be able to find an answer to my query...

    I get my bank statement online, and copy and paste the raw info into my own personal spreadsheet by greying everything out via the mouse, and use that for my own-designed accounts package! I've used this system for ten years, and while it isn't rocket science, I like to know what's happening and feel a bit happier if things are going well - or not!

    The date of each transaction appears in one cell, with the shortened date format, i.e. 06 May 2023, and in the same cell, the recipient of the money I've sent is printed directly underneath the date, so I have a 'two tier' cell, which I cannot see how to split up! I have to do this manually, and sometimes run out of time as the bank logs me off pretty quickly!

    I've tried all manner of functions, but never get anywhere near a result! I can do a regexreplace function on another cell, where the amount and the text is in the same plane, but the double-tier issue doesn't seem to work the same way!

    Is it at all possible for me to separate the date from the recipient, and just have them in two adjoining cells to suit my accounts programme please?

    With best wishes,

    Mike A.

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