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Reuben's avatar
Reuben
Iron Contributor
May 12, 2017
Solved

How to convert date format from imported data?

I have a csv file exported from another program with a column of dates. Excel recognizes the data as dates but it converts them to the wrong format.   The problem is the date March 27, 2017 shows u...
excel
Formulas and Functions
office 365
  • SergeiBaklan's avatar
    SergeiBaklan
    May 12, 2017

    Hi Reuben,

     

    The formula could be as

    =DATE(DAY(A1)+2000,MONTH(A1),MOD(YEAR(A1),2000))

    assuming all your dates are in 21st century.

     

    If in A1 is 2027-03-17 (as date, not text) the formula returns 2017-03-27.

     

    However, i'd start from second option

SergeiBaklan's avatar
SergeiBaklan
Diamond Contributor
May 12, 2017

Hi Reuben,

 

If your regional settings are in ISO format (2017-03-17) and in your csv file dates looks like 27-03-17 when yes, such data will be recognized as one in year 2027. Since Excel considers your csv date as one with two-digits year format, i.e. as YY-MM-DD.

 

Above is my guess since not clear how dates are formatted within csv (text) file. If so, there are two ways to fix

1) use Excel formulas to change years and dates

 

2) or simply not to open csv file but import data from it into new excel workbook (use Get Data from Text), on the third step of the importing wizard for column data format select Date and change default YMD on DMY.

 

 

Zachary Grotovsky's avatar
Zachary Grotovsky
Brass Contributor
May 12, 2017
Good call Sergei, I didn't catch that difference, thanks for clarifying

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