•1 min read•from Microsoft Excel | Help & Support with your Formula, Macro, and VBA problems | A Reddit Community
My "Order Date" column is a formatting nightmare. How do I force these into one consistent format?
Our take
Are your order dates a formatting nightmare? You’re not alone—many spreadsheets suffer from inconsistent date formats that make sorting and analysis a hassle. The good news is that you can swiftly transform your chaotic date column into a unified format, like YYYY-MM-DD, with a few simple steps. By resetting the formatting and ensuring Excel or Google Sheets recognizes each entry correctly, you can reclaim control and sanity in your data management. Read on for a straightforward guide to streamline your spreadsheet and enhance productivity.
Hey everyone, I’ve inherited a spreadsheet (screenshot attached) where the date columns are a complete mess. It looks like a mix of different regions and manual entries. The Issues: Some are written out (11 August 2016). Some use dashes (11-08-2016). Some use slashes (6/16/2016). Worst of all, I suspect some are being read as Day/Month while others are Month/Day, making it impossible to sort them chronologically. I’ve tried highlighting the column and changing the "Number Format" to Date, but half of the cells don't change at all (which I assume means Excel thinks they are "Text"). What is the fastest way to "reset" this entire column so every date follows the same format (YYYY-MM-DD)? I'm using [Excel / Google Sheets]. Thanks in advance for saving my sanity!
[link] [comments]
Read on the original site
Open the publisher's page for the full experience
Related Articles
- DD MM YY format now working rightCan anyone help please I'm losing my mind at how uncooperative Excel is. I've got a very extensive list of my client that I need to organise by date from when I last contacted them , oldest to newest , Format being Day month year , but every time I sort it it puts the newest day first then the older month , which makes no sense . https://preview.redd.it/0b4yqt6wzzpg1.png?width=112&format=png&auto=webp&s=7fd7c704184c92a476948e794e26d71849e3081f submitted by /u/OLTYTAA [link] [comments]
- How to change formatting of textHi everyone! I would like to ask for your help regarding the formatting of data in excel. So currently, I have list of dates however these dates are formatted as follows: MM/DD/YYYY ( example: 04/02/2024) I wanted to change the format to date to Month-Day-Year (02-Apr-2025) format but I dont know how to, Ive been trying to research about it. I have list of transactions and I really need to do it in bulk mode. Any suggest for a possible formula on this one? Help you Big 4 helpless dying auditor out. submitted by /u/flagrantly_mediocre [link] [comments]
- How to turn all dates into mmm-yy format rather than month and day?I have a large list of dates in the mmm-yy format ( for example apr-26, aug-33, etc.). When transferring to a date format, excel assumes that the last two digits are a day rather than a year (apr-26 becomes April 26th rather than April 2026). is it possible to transfer all of these values into the proper mmm-yy format so that they may be sorted by date? submitted by /u/GtheTaillow [link] [comments]
- How do I keep a placeholder date row sorted on the top of a sheet sorted by descending date?First off, apologies for the poor description in the title. I inherited a lead tracking spreadsheet from someone who was (relative to me) very experienced with Excel. Essentially we have a sheet that sorts by descending dates, so the most recent entry is at the top of the sheet. The way the sheet is configured is that a bunch of cells in the Date Entered column has a placeholder date of 1/1/1900. Nearly all of these sort to the bottom of the sheet, but there was always one of those rows that we had in the top spot to fill out. Once the true date is entered and the sorting is updated that row will go to the correct spot in the list and a new placeholder row with the 1/1/1900 date appears at the top. At some point one of my co-workers did something to the sheet that stopped this from happening, and I do not know what my previous co-worker did to get that function to work because I cannot find anything in the column sort options. Thanks for the help! submitted by /u/Landsharkeisha [link] [comments]