How do I convert dates such as '01-NOV-17 05.35.07 PM' to a standard date format?

[Meilani Kelley]

I need to be able to quickly sort and filter a very large file, but I can't since the dates are in a non-standard format. How can I quickly change the format to a '01-NOV-17' date? It would take hours to change the several thousands of line items one by one.

[#2]

Can we have the sample of those non-standard date?

[#3]

Meilani,

These dates are treated as texts so you have to convert them to real dates by using this formula:

=DATEVALUE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,".",":"))

This formula may give you the serial number of the date!

No problem, you can format these numbers to date format as follows:

Highlight them, press Ctrl+1, go to Date category, select the format that you prefer, and then hit OK.