Excel Formula: Convert Number to Date
Sometimes, while you import date data from other devices, it may be changed to a series number. How can you convert the numbers to Excel dates?
If you want to follow along with this tutorial, please download the example spreadsheet.
Case 1 convert 5-digit number to date displayed
Generic formula:
| TEXT(number,"mm/dd/yyyy") |
Syntaxt and Arguments
| Number: the series number that you want to convert to Excel date. |
Return Value
This formula returns a value in Excel date format.
How this formula work
To convert the numbers in the list B3:B6 to dates, please use below formula:
| =TEXT(B3,"mm/dd/yyyy") |
Press Enter key and drag fill handle down to cell C6.
Explanation
In Excel, the date is stored as number. Generally, Excel counts days from Jan 1, 1990, which means, the first date, Jan 1, 1990, is stored as 1 in Excel. In other words, number 43545 is 43545 days far from Jan 1, 1990, which is the date Mar 21, 2019.
TEXT function: convert number to a specific text format.
Remark
You can change the text format to other date formats as you need in the formula.
For example:
| TEXT(number,"mm-dd-yyyy") |
Case 2 convert number (yyyymmdd) to date
Generic formula:
| =DATE(LEFT(number,4),MID(number,5,2),RIGHT(number,2)) |
Syntaxt and Arguments
| Number: the series number that you want to convert to Excel date. |
Return Value
This formula returns a number value, then you can convert the number to a date format as you need.
How this formula work
To convert the numbers in the list E3:E6 to dates, please use below formula:
| =DATE(LEFT(E3,4),MID(E3,5,2),RIGHT(E3,2)) |
Press Enter key and drag fill handle down to cell C6.
Then click Home > drop-down list of Number Format to choose Short Date or Long Date as you need.
Explanation
LEFT function: extracts string from left of the text string.
MID function: returns the specific characters from the middle of text string.
RIGHT function: extracts the text from right of the text string.
DATE function: creates a date based on the given year, month, and day
Relative Formulas
- Convert Decimal Minutes to Time Format
This tutorial provides a formula to convert decimal minutes to Excel time. - Convert Decimal Seconds To Time
To convert decimal seconds to Excel time in Excel, a formula can help you. - Convert Time to Decimal Hours
Here provides a formula that converts time to decimal hours in Excel and explains how the formula works. - Convert Time To Decimal Minutes
In this tutorial, it provides a formula for converting time to decimal minutes in Excel.
Relative Functions
- Excel IF Function
Test for specified conditions, then returns the corresponding values - Excel VALUE Function
Convert text to number. - Excel MONTH Function
The MONTH is used to get the month as integer number (1 to 12) from date. - Excel DAY Function
DAY function gets the day as a number (1 to 31) from a date - Excel YEAR Function
The YEAR function returns the year based on the given date in a 4-digit serial number format.
The Best Office Productivity Tools
Kutools for Excel - Helps You To Stand Out From Crowd
Kutools for Excel Boasts Over 300 Features, Ensuring That What You Need is Just A Click Away...
Office Tab - Enable Tabbed Reading and Editing in Microsoft Office (include Excel)
- One second to switch between dozens of open documents!
- Reduce hundreds of mouse clicks for you every day, say goodbye to mouse hand.
- Increases your productivity by 50% when viewing and editing multiple documents.
- Brings Efficient Tabs to Office (include Excel), Just Like Chrome, Edge and Firefox.