Excel is typically able to recognize the data in the cells. For example, text cells will be remembered as text, dates as dates, and numeric cells as numbers. That does not, however, always occur, particularly if your data is copied from another location.
Since dates typically contain numbers, Excel can handle this rather well. However, dates can occasionally be formatted as text, or your dates may be incorrectly typed, in which case Excel will not recognize them as dates. What, then, would you do in this situation?
Dates are stored as numbers in Excel on the backend, but you can format dates in various ways to utilize them in multiple datasets. You also won't be able to determine dates from the data if the dates are kept in Excel as text. Therefore, you must know how to convert data to text in Excel sheets to make your data set effective.
What does it imply in Excel to Convert Text to Date?
Professionals typically import data into Excel from other programs, and occasionally that data includes dates. Excel makes it simple for data formatting such as to recognize dates as long as they are formatted correctly. For Excel to identify the data as a date, you must transform it from text to date.
How "Text Dates" Can Be Used to Determine Typical Excel Dates
There's a chance that date formatting will give you problems whenever you import data into Excel. The imported data appears like regular Excel dates, but it's not stored as dates in the backend. These dates are formatted as text in Excel, so you can't effectively structure a table that contains dates. Furthermore, those text dates are incompatible with Pivot Tables, charts, calculations, or other date-identifying Excel features.
Text Values versus Dates
- Dates are automatically aligned to the right every time.
- In contrast, text values are automatically left-aligned.
- The Date format can be accessed through the Number Format menu located on the Home tab.
- Conversely, the Number Format menu on the Home tab contains Text values in the General format.
- When the dates are selected, the Average, Count, and SUM choices appear on the Status Bar.
- In contrast, if many text dates are chosen on the Status Var, all that will appear is "Count."
Microsoft Excel formats dates by the default date settings when you enter them. If you were to enter February 6, 2020, for instance, your settings could cause the date to show as 6-Feb, February 6, 2020, 6 February, or 02/06/2020, depending on your chosen format. If you style a cell as "Standard," you can see that your date is saved as an integer. Excel bases date formatting on January 1, 1900; thus, February 6, 2020, will turn into 43865, for instance. There are several ways to structure dates in Excel. Learn how to alter the date format in Excel to assist with data organization.
Selecting a Date Format from the List
The date formats list makes it the simplest to format dates in Excel. This menu contains most of the date formats you would need.
- Modifying the Date Format in Excel
- Decide which cells you wish to format.
- Select Command+1 or Ctrl+1.
- Click on the "Numbers" tab.
- Select "Date" from the list of categories.
- Make your choice of date format from the "Type" menu.
Selecting a Date Format from the List
The date formats list makes it the simplest to format dates in Excel. This menu contains most of the date formats you would need.
- Modifying the Date Format in Excel
- Decide which cells you wish to format.
- Select Command+1 or Ctrl+1.
- Click on the "Numbers" tab.
- Select "Date" from the list of categories.
- Make your choice of date format from the "Type" menu.
Advice on How to Show Dates in Excel
There are more hints to assist you in learning how to arrange data in Excel once you have the correct date format.
Verify that the cell has enough width to accommodate the complete date. If the cell is not wide enough, ##### will appear. To ensure that the date seems appropriate, double-click the column's right edge to make it expand.
If dates appear as negative values, change the date system. Because of the hyphens, Excel occasionally formats any negative number as a date. Choose "Advanced" from the settings menu after selecting the cells to correct this. Select "Use 1904 date system" from that menu.
To work with today's date, use functions. Use the formula =TODAY() and hit ENTER to set a cell always to show the date.
Convert text to a date format. If you import from an external database, Excel will begin automatically rectifying data as text. Excel will handle the two differently, even though the presentation might appear the same as if they were presented as dates. The DATEVALUE function can be utilized for conversion.
Data formatting, such as date formatting, is a subset of "data preparation," which encompasses all the actions necessary to clean, standardize, and get data ready for analysis.
The proper tools, templates, dashboards, and platforms enable all these to function effectively and efficiently.
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