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 6. Total comments: 555

  1. 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".

  2. 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.

  3. 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

  4. 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.

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

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

  6. 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.

  7. 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..... :)

  8. How do i change 20080702 to July?

  9. 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

  10. 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.

  11. 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!

  12. 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

  13. 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.

  14. 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.

  15. 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.

  16. 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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