2 Ways to Change Date Format in Excel for Beginners (Complete)

In filling cell in Microsoft Excel in the form of a date, we are usually constrained by an inappropriate date format. Not infrequently the format changes after we write it down. Generally, the date format in Microsoft Excel follows the English writing format where it starts with the month, then the date, and the year.

In contrast to Indonesian writing where the format of writing the date starts from the date, then month, and year. Therefore, writing the date in Excel is done by following the format default Excel, namely English writing (m,d,y).

Usually, for writing a date that can be read by Excel it will immediately change to the format mm/dd/yyyy (12/30/2021) or dd-mmm (30-Dec). This is automatically done by Excel when it finds date formats like the example below.

If you do input:

• 6/16/18 or 6-6-18 then Excel will convert it to 6/16/2021, which means June 16, 2021
• 6/16 or 6-16 then Excel will convert it to 16-Jun, which means June 16 [Tahun Saat Dituliskan].

The writing above is in the date format default Excel, where writing starts from the month, not the date.

How to Change Date Format in Excel

Here, I’m using Microsoft Excel 2021, it doesn’t really make much of a difference with Excel 2021, 2010, or others. You can still follow the steps in this discussion.

To change the format of writing your date in Excel, I recommend that you check first whether your date format is in accordance with the writing default Excel or not. If your date is written in accordance with default, then you can change the format. The steps for changing the format in Excel are as follows.

1. Open your Excel file where there is a date that you want to change the format of. Suppose there is our date format as shown below.

2. Then select cell for which you want to change the date format. Suppose I want to change the date format in the left column. Block all the date columns that are on the left.

3. Next, press the button Ctrl then 1 on keyboard. This will bring up the Format Cells dialog box.

4. After that select the tab Number, then select Category Date. choose Type for the date format you want. You can scroll scroll down to find the format you want. Then, you can see an example of a date format application in the section Sample. When finished, click the button OK to implement to your file. You can see all these components in the picture.

5. Your date format was successfully replaced according to the format you selected.

If you want to change the format to Indonesian writing, you can follow the steps above. In Format Cells, look at the options in the section Locale (loccation) which is under Type. search English. Then you can do the same way as above by selecting the date format on Type and click the button OK to change the date format.

After that, if you find the date format changed to hashtags, do column widening on cell-his. Sometimes, the result of the date format is too long so that it appears as a row of hashtags.

Well, the taggal format has been successfully replaced by Location: Indonesian.

Create Your Own Custom Date Format

If you are not satisfied with the date format provided in Excel, or you don’t find the format you want, then you can create your own date format. To make it, see the following steps.

1. Perform steps 1 to step 3 in the previous steps above.

2. After the Format Cells dialog box appears, select Custom for Categories. Then, select the format in the available Type.

You can edit the date format you want by using the code below.

After that, click OK to apply the new date format.

3. Next, the same as the previous step, if you find the date format changed to a series of hashtags, do it wide cell or your column. Finally, your date format was replaced successfully.

Closing

That’s how to change date format in Excel. You can change the date format as you wish. Plus by using the available code rules. If you have suggestions and feedback regarding this discussion, please fill in the comments column below, yes. Thank you.

Share :