How to Convert Date to Text in Excel?
The conversion of the date to text is very easy and simple. There are four simple ways to convert date to text in Excel:
- Using the Text Function (most commonly used)
- Using the Text to Column option
- Using Copy Paste method
- Using VBA
Use of Date to Text in Worksheet
In Excel Text function is commonly used to convert a numeric value to a text string and display it in the format you specify so we can use it to convert date to text in excel format.
Date to Text Function in Excel
The TEXT formula in excel is as follows:
- Value: It is a numeric value you want to convert to text. This can be a number, a formula that returns a numeric value, or a reference to a cell containing a number.
- format_text: This is how you want to format the resulting text value, provided as a text string enclosed in quotation marks.
Using the Text function to convert date to text in excel requires a basic understanding of the formats that you can use in it.
In the case of dates, there are four parts to the format:
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- day format
- month format
- year format
- separator
#1 Using Text Function
Example #1
Apply the formula =A4&”‘s joining date is “&TEXT(B4,”dd-mm-yyyy”)
To get the below output.
Example #2
You can also convert the current date to text by below formula
=”Today is “&TEXT(TODAY(),”dd/mm/yyyy”)
To get the below output.
#2 Using Text to Column
Suppose you have a dataset as shown in the below and you want to convert these dates into text format:
Select the data and Go to Data then Data Tools and Text to Column in Excel.
Press Next and uncheck all Delimiters
Select the location and click on the finish as shown in the below figure.
The output will be as follows:
#3 Using Copy Paste Method
Consider the data set of joining date
- Copy the data. Open a Notepad and paste it there. As soon as you paste the dates in the notepad, it automatically gets converted into text.
- Now switch back to the Excel and select the cells where you want to paste these dates.
- With the cells selected, go to Home then Number and select the Text format (from the drop down).
- Paste the date as text
#4 Using VBA
Suppose we have the text in the Sheet1 and in the H2 cell then apply the Date to text by using the below VBA code.
Sub Datetotexts ()
Dim c As Range
For Each c In Selection
c.Value = Format(c.Value, “dd.mm.yyyy”)
Next c
End Sub
Things to Remember
- Left-aligned by default
- If several text dates are selected, the Status Bar only shows Count.
- There may be a leading apostrophe visible in the formula bar.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide on how to convert Date to Text in Excel. Here we discuss the top 3 methods to convert the Date to Text: 1) Text Formula 2) Text to Column and 3) Copy Paste Method along with examples and downloadable excel template. You may also look at these useful functions in excel –
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