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Many people want to know more about how to Change Date Format in Excel. Excel is a powerful spreadsheet program that lets users put different kinds of data in one or more cells on one or more pages. We often need to add dates and times to an Excel sheet along with numbers and writing. No matter how we type the dates into Excel, it will immediately use the default format as set in Excel’s settings (or the Control Panel). If you use date numbers in Excel, it would be helpful to know how to format them in different ways. Any date or time value in Excel would be a number that represents that date or time.
On the back end, every date is linked to a serial number. However, Excel gives you a lot of options for how to show this date in a box. Dates and times are used as often as numbers in Excel. But they can be hard to work with because Excel can show the same date in different ways and because Excel always saves dates in the same format, no matter how you formatted a date in a cell. If you know a little more about the date types in Excel, you can save a lot of time. We mentioned below are the steps how to Change Date Format in Excel. If you want to know more information about this Visit Official Microsoft Excel Website for further Support.
Common issues when changing date format
When changing the date format, there are some common issues that you may encounter. Here are a few examples:
- Incorrect formatting: If the date format code is entered incorrectly, it can result in unexpected or incorrect date representations. It’s important to use the correct formatting codes for the desired date format.
- Invalid dates: If the original data in column A contains invalid dates, such as text or incorrect values, the conversion may fail or produce incorrect results. Ensure that the data in column A consists of valid date values before attempting to change the format.
- Regional settings: Date formats can vary based on regional settings and locale. If the desired date format doesn’t match the regional settings of the system or application you’re using, the conversion may not produce the expected results. Make sure to adjust the formatting codes according to your specific regional settings.
- Cell references: When copying the date conversion formula to other cells in column B, ensure that the cell references in the formula are adjusted correctly. If the references are not updated properly, it can lead to inconsistent or incorrect date conversions.
- Data range selection: When copying the formula, be cautious about selecting the correct data range in column B that matches the data range in column A. If the ranges don’t align properly, the formula may not be applied to the intended cells, resulting in incorrect date formatting.
- Data overwriting: If you choose to copy and paste the converted dates back into column A, be careful to replace the original dates correctly. Make sure to double-check the range and ensure that you don’t accidentally overwrite any other data in column A.
How to Change Date Format in Excel
- Select the cell or range of cells containing the dates that you want to format.
- Right-click on the selected cell(s) and choose the Format Cells option from the context menu. Alternatively, you can go to the Home tab in the Excel ribbon, click on the Number Format dropdown arrow, and select More Number Formats.
- In the Format Cells dialog box, go to the Number tab.
- In the left pane, select the Date category.
- In the right pane, choose the desired date format from the list or customize the format using the options provided.
- As you make changes to the format, you can see a preview of how the dates will appear in the Sample section.
- Once you have selected or customized the desired date format, click OK to apply the changes.
Common date formatting codes in Excel
In Excel, you can use various date formatting codes to display dates in different formats. Here are some common date formatting codes:
- Short Date: Displays the date using the short date format specified in your computer’s regional settings. Example: “6/19/2023”
- Long Date: Displays the date using the long date format specified in your computer’s regional settings. Example: “Monday, June 19, 2023”
- Custom Date Format: You can create your own custom date format using the following codes:
- d: Day of the month as a single digit (1-31).dd: Day of the month as a two-digit number (01-31).ddd: Abbreviated weekday name (Mon, Tue, etc.).dddd: Full weekday name (Monday, Tuesday, etc.).m: Month as a single digit (1-12).mm: Month as a two-digit number (01-12).mmm: Abbreviated month name (Jan, Feb, etc.).mmmm: Full month name (January, February, etc.).yy: Two-digit year.yyyy: Four-digit year.
- Time Formats: You can also combine date and time formats using the following codes:
- h: Hour without leading zero (0-23).
- hh: Hour with leading zero (00-23).
- m: Minute without leading zero (0-59).
- mm: Minute with leading zero (00-59).
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Changing date format in bulk using formulas
- Column A: Assume you have a column with numbers in a certain format, starting with cell A1.
- Column B: Put the code to change the date format in a column next to it, like column B. Let’s say you want it to be in “dd/mm/yyyy” format. Type the following code into cell B1:
- =TEXT(A1, “dd/mm/yyyy”)
- The date in cell A1 is changed to the style you want by using the TEXT function.
- Copy: Copy the code from cell B1 to the rest of the cells in column B that match your data range in column A. You can do this by choosing cell B1 and dragging the fill handle (a small square at the bottom right corner of the cell) down to the last date-containing cell in column A.
- This will apply the formula to each matching cell in column B, changing the date format immediately.
- Once all of the dates in column B are in the style you want, you can copy and paste them back into column A to replace the original dates, if necessary.
Questions and Answers
Dates are saved in Excel as numbers that go in order. The problem with the formatting is likely caused by the fact that the imported dates are kept as text instead of real numbers. Note that proper dates can only be set up with positive numbers.
To show a correct date, you will need to change the number style (style Cells). For example, =DATE(C2,A2,B2) puts the year from cell C2, the month from cell A2, and the day from cell B2 into one cell as a date. In cell D2 of the image below, you can see the end result.
The system’s “Control Panel” is where you can change the date style. But you can change these choices if you want to. For example, the format for the date January 1, 2021 is dd/mm/yyyy. d-mmm-yyyy is the date if the style is changed to d-mmm-yyyy.
DATE(year, month, day) gives you a date’s serial number based on the values you give for the year, month, and day. DATE is the most important Excel tool to learn if you want to work with dates. The point is that Excel’s other date tools don’t always work with dates that are entered in text format.