Change Date Format in Excel: General Format Explained

To change dates showing as numbers in Excel, select the cells and choose Home > Number Format > Short Date or Long Date. For a specific style, press Ctrl+1, choose Number > Custom, enter a format such as dd-mmm-yyyy, and select OK. This changes how recognized date values appear, not the dates themselves.

Excel stores real dates as serial numbers: each number represents a day, and a number format controls how that value is displayed. The General format shows the underlying number, so a date can appear as a number when its cells are set to General. If a value is actually text rather than an Excel date, changing its number format alone will not fix it; check the troubleshooting steps below.

What You’ll Need

An Excel workbook with the dates you want to display differently. If the dates are important, save a copy before making bulk changes.
A preferred display style, such as 3/7/2026, 07-Mar-2026, or March 7, 2026. Remember that the first example can be interpreted differently by people using different regional settings.
Access to Microsoft Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows for the menu paths below. Excel for Mac and Excel for the web have equivalent formatting options, with a few interface differences noted in the steps.

Step-by-Step

Select the cells that contain the dates. Click a cell, then drag across a range, or click the column letter to select a whole column. To select separate ranges, hold Ctrl as you click each one on Windows. On a Mac, hold Command while selecting separate ranges. If you select a whole column, be aware that the format will also apply to new entries and any numbers in that column.
Check the current number format. On the Home tab, look in the Number group at the Number Format dropdown. If it says General and the selected cells show numbers such as 46088, Excel may be displaying the date serial value instead of a calendar date. The number is not necessarily an error. A format change is usually enough if the value is a genuine Excel date.
Apply a standard date format. Open Home > Number Format and choose Short Date for a compact date or Long Date for a version that includes the weekday and a written-out month. The exact appearance of Short Date depends on your computer’s regional settings; it may use slashes, hyphens, or a different order for day, month, and year. Look at the cell after applying the choice to confirm it matches your needs.
Choose a custom date format when the built-in choices are not suitable. With the cells selected, press Ctrl+1 to open Format Cells. Select the Number tab, choose Custom in the Category list, and enter a pattern in the Type box. For example, dd-mmm-yyyy displays a date like 07-Mar-2026; mmmm d, yyyy displays March 7, 2026; and yyyy-mm-dd displays 2026-03-07. Select OK to apply the pattern.
Know what the custom-format letters mean. In a date format, d shows the day without a leading zero and dd adds one. mmm shows an abbreviated month name, while mmmm spells it out. m or mm shows the month as a number; yy and yyyy show a two- or four-digit year. For example, m/d/yy could display March 7, 2026 as 3/7/26. Be careful with m in formats that also include time: Excel can use it for minutes when it appears in a time context.
Confirm the result and adjust the column width if needed. A cell may show ##### after you select a longer date format. This commonly means the column is too narrow, not that the date was lost. Double-click the right edge of the column heading to AutoFit, or drag the edge wider. Check a few cells near the top and bottom of the range to ensure the display is consistent.

On Excel for Mac, select the cells and use the Home tab’s number-format controls, or open Format > Cells and choose the date or custom category. The keyboard shortcut for Format Cells can vary with Mac keyboard settings; use the menu if Ctrl+1 does not open it. In Excel for the web, use the Home tab’s Number Format menu for standard date formats. The custom-format options may differ from the desktop app, so open the workbook in desktop Excel if you need a format code that the web interface does not offer.

Common Mistakes

Assuming every date-looking entry is a date value. A value imported from a text file or pasted from a website may be stored as text. A quick clue is that changing it to Short Date has no visible effect, or that it aligns differently from other values. Fix the underlying text conversion rather than repeatedly changing its format.
Confusing the displayed date with the stored value. A custom format changes the appearance only. It does not change the actual date, reorder the date parts, or turn a date into a different day. If a cell contains the wrong date, correct the value itself.
Using an ambiguous day/month order. A date such as 4/5/2026 could mean April 5 or May 4, depending on the locale. For reports shared across regions, use a clear format such as 05-Apr-2026 or the unambiguous year-first yyyy-mm-dd.
Typing a format code as though it were a formula. Custom date codes belong in the Type box in Format Cells; they are not entered into the worksheet cell. If you type dd-mmm-yyyy directly into a cell, Excel will treat it as text.
Formatting a whole column without checking its other contents. Applying a date format to a column that also contains amounts or IDs can make those numbers look like dates. Select only the date cells when the column has mixed data.

Tips

Use a four-digit year. Formats such as dd-mmm-yyyy make the year clear and reduce confusion in exported or printed reports. Two-digit years may be interpreted according to Excel’s date rules and are less clear to other readers.
Use the Format Cells dialog to inspect a selection. Press Ctrl+1 on Windows and look at the Category and Type fields. If the category is General, switching to Date or Custom should change the display for real date values. If the content remains unchanged, investigate whether it is text.
Apply formats consistently to a date column. Select the data range, including blank cells where future dates will be entered, and apply one format. In a structured Excel table, format the date column so new rows are easier to keep consistent.
Keep source data intact when dates come from imports. If you need to transform text dates, retain an untouched copy of the original column until you have checked the converted dates. This is especially useful when source dates have an unfamiliar locale or mixed separators.
Use a format that suits the destination. A long date is readable in a presentation, while a compact format may fit a worksheet. For data exchanged between systems, confirm the receiving system’s expected date convention rather than relying on how a cell looks on your screen.

Troubleshooting

The cell still shows a number after selecting Short Date. First confirm that you selected the cell with the number, not a nearby cell or a different part of the range. Check the formula bar to see the stored value, then reopen the Number Format dropdown and apply Short Date again. If the cell changes to a date, the value was a date serial shown under General. If it remains unchanged or behaves like text, continue with the text-date checks below.

Changing the format has no effect on a date-looking value. The entry may be text. One option is to select the affected column and use Data > Text to Columns. Choose Delimited and select Next twice if the text should remain in one column. In the column data format options, choose Date and select the order that matches the source data, such as MDY or DMY, then select Finish. Inspect the results carefully: choosing the wrong order can swap the month and day. The exact choices may vary with the imported data and Excel version.

Text to Columns does not parse the values correctly. Check whether the text contains extra spaces, nonstandard separators, or month names in another language. Confirm the source convention before converting; do not assume that 03/04/2026 means March 4. If the source includes a time as well as a date, verify that the converted result retains the time. You can test a single value in a spare cell or on a copied sheet before changing the full column.

The dates display as ######. Widen the column or apply a shorter format such as dd-mmm-yy. In unusual cases, a negative date or time value cannot be displayed as a standard date in the workbook’s date system; check the underlying value and any calculation that produced it rather than only widening the column.

The date appears one day off, or month and day seem reversed. Check the source’s regional convention and the order used when importing or converting it. Also check whether the workbook uses the 1900 or 1904 date system, particularly if dates were copied between workbooks from different platforms. Do not switch the date system casually: it can change how existing date serials are interpreted. If the workbook contains many dates, make a copy before investigating that setting.

The custom code is rejected or displays unexpectedly. Reopen Format Cells > Number > Custom and enter the code without quotation marks, such as dd-mmm-yyyy. Check that the selection contains date values and that your code uses the intended month and day symbols. Some display details can be affected by regional settings; a format that uses month names may appear in the computer’s language.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Excel show a date as a number in General format?
Excel stores a recognized date as a serial number. General displays the underlying number instead of presenting it as a calendar date. Apply Short Date, Long Date, or a custom date format to change its display.

Does changing the date format change the actual date?
No. Number formatting changes how Excel displays a stored value, not the value itself. To correct a date that is actually wrong, edit or convert the underlying entry.

How do I show the month name instead of a number?
Select the cells, open Format Cells, choose Number > Custom, and enter mmm d, yyyy for an abbreviated month or mmmm d, yyyy for a full month name. The display language can follow your regional settings.

Can I use a custom date format without changing the cell value?
Yes. A custom code such as yyyy-mm-dd changes only the display of a recognized date. It does not alter the date serial or the result of calculations that use the cell.

Why does a date pasted from another program not respond to formatting?
It may have been pasted as text. Use Text to Columns or another suitable conversion method, making sure to choose the source’s correct day/month/year order. Then apply the desired date format.

Can Excel show dates in ISO-style year-month-day format?
Yes. Select the date cells, open Format Cells > Number > Custom, and enter yyyy-mm-dd. This changes the display to a clear year-first arrangement; verify that the cells contain real date values, not text.

Try it: the Date Difference Calculator: days, months, years and weekdays between two dates, with the DATEDIF formulas.

More in How-to basics

Sources: Function behaviour and menu paths: Microsoft Support documentation for Excel. Method & sources

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