You can do this with Text to Columns.

Select the single column of numbers, then in the 3rd step choose as follows, then press Finish.

which leaves you with proper Excel dates:

I'm in the UK with default DMY so the above is showing as such, your dates will show as in your locale, maybe like this:

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Microsoft Support
support.microsoft.com › en-us › office › format-a-date-the-way-you-want-in-excel-8e10019e-d5d8-47a1-ba95-db95123d273e
Format a date the way you want in Excel - Microsoft Support
To enter a date that will update to the current date each time you reopen a worksheet or recalculate a formula, type =TODAY() in an empty cell, and then press ENTER. When you type something like 2/2 in a cell, Excel for the web thinks you're typing a date and shows it as 2-Feb.
Discussions

How do you convert date format to another?
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December 18, 2021
Going crazy over trying to change date formatting
Several websites suggest writing something like =DATE(LEFT(C61,4);mid(C61,5,2);right(C61,2)) . In Excel this causes an error message "There is a problem with this formula..." etc. In Google Sheets it says formula parse error. Check your regional settings. Excel can use ONE and ONLY one of comma or semicolon to separate arguments in a function used in your formula. You MUST use the appropriate one for you ALWAYS when entering a formula. You can read more on this at https://exceljet.net/glossary/list-separator . Update the argument separators in your formula so that they ALL match your regional settings and this formula should work. My preferred way to convert dates in the format you have to a real date is =0 + TEXT(date cell, "0000-00-00") With either option, you may need to go into the format cells dialog box and set the format of the cell to your preferred date format. More on reddit.com
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November 18, 2022
Returning a date format in a formula as date format (currently showing as text)
I have a simple formula that looks at cells to return a string of data - release date , Artist, Title Release date is in column M, Artist in column B, title in column C i want to come back with the following data Release date = 12/03/2021 - Black Crowes - Southern Harmony my formula looks... More on mrexcel.com
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February 20, 2021
How do I format dates to show MM/DD/YYYY?
Go to custom and type in MM/DD/YYYY and it'll work for you More on reddit.com
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June 7, 2024
Top answer
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OPTION 1)

Assuming that you source date that is in the number format dd.mm.yyyy stored as an excel date serial and only formatted to display as dd.mm.yyyy then the best fix is to select the cells you want to modify. Go to your home tab, and select the number format and change it to General. See Green circles in image below. IF the format is already set to general, or when you switch it to general your numbers do not change, then it is most likely that your date in dd.mm.yyyy format is actually text. and will needed to be converted as per OPTION 2 below. However, if the number does change when you set it to general, select the arrow in the bottom right corner of the number area (see red circle).

After clicking the arrow in the red circle you should see a screen similar to the one below:

Select Custom from the category list on the left, and then in the Type bar enter the format you want which is yyyy/mm/dd.

OPTION 2

=date(Right(A1,4),mid(A1,4,2),left(A1,2))

This assumes your original date is a string stored in A1, and converts the string to a date serial in the form excel stores dates in.1 You can copy this formula down beside you dates. You can then apply cell formatting for the date as described above, or use the build short or long date if that style matches your needs.

1Excel counts the number of days since January 0 1900 for the windows version of excel. I believe mac is 1904 or 1905.

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The problem is that your date is a text string, so changing the cell number format won't have any effect.

One method of convert the dates in place to "real" dates is to use the Text to Columns wizard.

  • Select your date(s).

  • Select the Text to Columns option on the Data Tools Tab of the Data Ribbon:

  • At Step 1, select "Fixed Width" then "Next"

  • Step 2 is irrelevant

  • At Step 3, for the date column, select DMY as the format. You can also select the "Destination" if you want the results written elsewhere.

  • Then "Finish".

That's it. Your dates will be converted in place

Since your dates are now "real" Excel dates, you can use the Cell ► Number Format dialog to change the format to whatever you want.

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Ablebits
ablebits.com › ablebits blog › excel › date › how to change excel date format and create custom formatting
How to change date format in Excel and create custom ...
October 10, 2023 - SUBSTITUTE function removes the dashes so you get 07222025 ROW(INDIRECT(...)) creates an array to loop through each digit. Read more: Excel INDIRECT function - basic uses and formula examples. MID function pulls each digit individually. TEXTJOIN function joins them back together with spaces. ... Pls. help to convert the date 13/6/2012 in standard date format like 13-Jun-2012.
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Alteryx
alteryx.com › home › how to change date format in excel
How to Change Date Format in Excel | Alteryx
August 12, 2025 - To fix this, select the cells, ... today’s date. If you want a cell to always display the current date, use the formula =TODAY() and press ENTER....
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Microsoft Support
support.microsoft.com › en-us › office › convert-dates-stored-as-text-to-dates-8df7663e-98e6-4295-96e4-32a67ec0a680
Convert dates stored as text to dates - Microsoft Support
Then copy the formula, select the cells that contain the text dates, and use Paste Special to apply a date format to them. ... Select a blank cell and verify that its number format is General. ... Select the cell that contains the text-formatted date that you want to convert.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/excel › how do you convert date format to another?
r/excel on Reddit: How do you convert date format to another?
December 18, 2021 -

I have thousands of dates in a sheet that is formatted yyyymmdd Example: 20220827 for August 27, 2022.

I’d like to convert it from yyyymmdd to m/d/yyyy (or mm/dd/yyyy) with the slashes. How do I re-format this for all cells?

Find elsewhere
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DataCamp
datacamp.com › tutorial › how-to-change-date-format-in-excel
How to Change Date Format in Excel: What You Need to Know | DataCamp
July 28, 2025 - While Excel doesn’t support these directly through custom date codes, you can combine formulas with custom formats to get the result. ... To show the quarter: use a formula like ="Q"&INT((MONTH(A1)-1)/3)+1. This will display the quarter number of the year. If you want to write as Quarter 1, change the formula to ="Quarter "&INT((MONTH(A2)-1)/3)+1
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Ablebits
ablebits.com › ablebits blog › excel › date › excel: convert text to date and number to date
How to convert text to date and number to date in Excel
March 22, 2023 - For example, if =TODAY()+7 returns ... wrong. Simply, the cell format is set to General or Text while it should be Date. To convert such serial number to date, all you have to do is change the cell number format....
Top answer
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In the Formula Bar, a date will show according to your computer's setting for the "Short date".

In Control Panel > Clock, Language and Region > Region and Language you can set these defaults for your computer.

The Excel "short date" format will always be displayed in the formula bar. In the screenshot below, you can see my regional settings. The Excel cell has today's date, formatted as a "Long Date". The formula bar shows the "Short date", which is determined by the computer's regional settings.

So, no, you cannot change the way the date shows in the formula bar, unless you are prepared to change your computer settings for "short date". This will then apply to all applications that use that date format, which may be way more than just Excel.

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There is no way to change the date format in the formula bar. Excel actually stores dates as serial number, so your example of September 26, 2013 is actually stored in Excel as 41543. You can use the format cell settings to change the in-cell output to whatever format you need, but there is no explicit "formula bar" format. It is just there as a way to show you the data contained in the cell.

The only way to change the view in the formula bar would be to convert the date to text using the TEXT() function, but then you would no longer be able to interact with the date as a number.

A full explanation of the way dates and times work in Excel is available on Excel Tactics: The Definitive Guide to Using Dates and Times in Excel

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Trump Excel
trumpexcel.com › home › how to change date format in excel?
How to Change Date Format In Excel? (5 Simple Ways)
November 16, 2025 - Enter this formula in cell B2 and copy this for the entire column to get the numerical values for all the dates in column A. Once you have the numerical values, you can then format it as a regular date. Note: DATEVALUE would only work with dates that are in a format that Excel recognizes as date. In case you have a date in a format that is not a recognized date format in Excel (such as 01.Jan.2024 or 01st Jan 2024), you won’t be able to use the DATEVALUE function.
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How To Excel
howtoexcel.org › change-date-format
9 Ways to Change Date Format in Microsoft Excel | How To Excel
December 13, 2017 - Also in this formula, enter the date format you want by replacing this code "dddd mm-yyyy\". If you’re using AutoFill, change the cell ranges C2:C6 according to your worksheet. So these are some of the common ways to change the date format in Excel. If your dataset is small, you can use manual ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/excel › going crazy over trying to change date formatting
r/excel on Reddit: Going crazy over trying to change date formatting
November 18, 2022 -

Hi, I have a column of 365 rows showing the dates of the year in the format yearmonthday.
Eg 20180101, 20180102, 20180103, ... etc.

I have tried figuring this out both in Excel and in Google Sheets.

I simply want to add two hyphens so that it looks like year-month-day. For an hour+ I have found two methods which both are failing.

  1. Several websites suggest writing something like
    =DATE(LEFT(C61,4);mid(C61,5,2);right(C61,2)) .
    In Excel this causes an error message "There is a problem with this formula..." etc. In Google Sheets it says formula parse error.

  2. right-click on cell -> format cells -> selecting the Type I want.
    In Excel the result is just a very long row of "#################". The locale is set to English (Sweden). In Google Sheets I select cell -> format -> number -> date. 20180102 becomes " 57151-03-29 ".

I can't help to think this software is inadequate in providing simple solutions to simple problems like this. It is more easy to learn a programming language like Python, because there is clear and available documentation on most basic tasks.

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MrExcel
mrexcel.com › forums › question forums › excel questions
Returning a date format in a formula as date format (currently showing as text) | MrExcel Message Board
February 20, 2021 - You need to use the TEXT function in the formula to preserve the date in the correct format. ... Glad we could help & thanks for the feedback. ... Click to expand... You can't, so I'd suggest Jason's post as he was the first.
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Microsoft Support
support.microsoft.com › en-us › office › format-numbers-as-dates-or-times-418bd3fe-0577-47c8-8caa-b4d30c528309
Format numbers as dates or times - Microsoft Support
October 23, 2021 - To quickly enter the current date ... will update to the current date each time you reopen a worksheet or recalculate a formula, type =TODAY() in an empty cell, and then press ENTER....
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Savant Labs
savantlabs.io › home › how to change date format in excel in a few simple steps
How To Change Date Format in Excel in a Few Simple Steps
August 6, 2025 - Excel offers several built-in keyboard shortcuts to help you quickly change the format of your dates. Shortcut: To open the Format Cells dialog box, press Ctrl + 1 for Windows or Cmd + 1 for Mac users.
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SimpleSheets
simplesheets.co › blog › the-ultimate-guide-how-to-change-date-format-in-excel
How To Change Date Format In Excel - Excel Tips and Tricks
There are default formats available, but if you want a custom format, you can create one using a format code. Choose the range of cells to format. Press the Ctrl + 1 keys for the Format Cells dialog box.
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ExcelDemy
exceldemy.com › home › excel formulas › how to change date format in excel using formula
How to Change Date Format in Excel Using Formula - ExcelDemy
June 23, 2024 - Apply the formula to the other cells using the Fill Handle tool. The text-formatted dates in Excel will change to the proper date format.
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GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org › excel › how-to-change-date-format-in-excel
How to Change Date Format in Excel - GeeksforGeeks
May 14, 2024 - Enter the CTRL+SHIFT+# or CTRL+SHIFT+@ formula in the cell. ... Click on the cell that consists of Time or enter the Time in a blank cell. ... In the Home tab, click the Number group.