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Excel Date Direction
I need to change the date direction to start from right to left, like:
2025-09-28
I tried everything, but the date is stuck from left to right:
28-09-2025
Any suggestions?
default formatting is based on your localization setting (computer settings). The above format of YYYY-MM-DD is an ISO standard and should be recognized for all locals I believe. In the file however you have YYYY/MM/DD which is not recognized in most locales. Furthermore you are saying "direction from right to left" which makes me wonder if you are in a local that is reading right to left instead of left to right.
In both cases shown in your file, 15/2/2024 is not recognized by Excel as a date. For example if your localization setting it for the USA where the default is MM/DD/YYYY it would not recognize that as a date and enter it as text. If you are in Europe where the default is DD/MM/YYYY it may still enter it as text if it was imported (depending on a number of factors).
So the question is if you are asking:
a) how to convert dates already entered but not recognized by excel as a date, into a recognized date and then format based on a desired format (see Hans' answer)
b) how to enter dates into excel so they are recognized and shown the way you want
---- use a recognized format for entry (e.g. YYYY-MM-DD or MM/DD/YYYY in the US) and then set the cell formatting to show how you want (e.g. YYYY-MM-DD should be an option but if you want YYYY/MM/DD you may need to change the Locale (location) drop down to Afrikaans or another Locale that offers that format or manual create that format under the Custom option)
c) how to enter date in that YYYY/MM/DD format and have excel recognize it
----- you will probably need to have your computer set in a local where that is a recognized format (e.g. Afrikaans)
default formatting is based on your localization setting (computer settings). The above format of YYYY-MM-DD is an ISO standard and should be recognized for all locals I believe. In the file however you have YYYY/MM/DD which is not recognized in most locales. Furthermore you are saying "direction from right to left" which makes me wonder if you are in a local that is reading right to left instead of left to right.
In both cases shown in your file, 15/2/2024 is not recognized by Excel as a date. For example if your localization setting it for the USA where the default is MM/DD/YYYY it would not recognize that as a date and enter it as text. If you are in Europe where the default is DD/MM/YYYY it may still enter it as text if it was imported (depending on a number of factors).
So the question is if you are asking:
a) how to convert dates already entered but not recognized by excel as a date, into a recognized date and then format based on a desired format (see Hans' answer)
b) how to enter dates into excel so they are recognized and shown the way you want
---- use a recognized format for entry (e.g. YYYY-MM-DD or MM/DD/YYYY in the US) and then set the cell formatting to show how you want (e.g. YYYY-MM-DD should be an option but if you want YYYY/MM/DD you may need to change the Locale (location) drop down to Afrikaans or another Locale that offers that format or manual create that format under the Custom option)
c) how to enter date in that YYYY/MM/DD format and have excel recognize it
----- you will probably need to have your computer set in a local where that is a recognized format (e.g. Afrikaans)
Sure, here is an sample
Thanks, I only now received your reply. I applied Data > Text to Columns to both examples as described in my previous reply. This converted the text values to dates correctly. See the attached version.
If changing the number format has no effect, Excel sees the value as text instead of as a date.
Select a column with such values, then click Text to Columns on the Data tab of the ribbon.
Select Delimited, click Next >, then click Next > again.
Select DMY from the Date drop-down, then click Finish.
Apply yyyy-mm-dd as number format.
Thank you, I've tried this but nothing changed.
Could you attach a small sample workbook demonstrating the problem (without sensitive data), or if that is not possible, make it available through OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox or similar? Alternatively, you can attach it to a private message to me. Thanks in advance.
