Free Practice WorkbookWhenever you import data from your company’s server, ERP system or any other source for that matter, the Dates usually come in a TEXT format.
I will show you a cool trick where you can turn the TEXT Date to a values Date that Excel can read and work with.
Download excel workbookText-to-Columns-One-Click.xlsx
STEP 1: Let’s confirm that the Dates are in TEXT format by including the ISTEXT function.
A TRUE means that it is a TEXT format:
STEP 2: Now that we know that our Dates are in TEXT format we can select the Dates column
STEP 3: Go to Data > Text to Columns > Finish
This will turn the TEXT Date into an Excel Date! Â How quick was that?!?!?!
If this does not fix your dates then you can use other methods to clean up that sticky, stubborn TEXT date:
Text To Columns: Dates
Turn Text To Values With Paste Special Values
Top Excel Data Cleansing Techniques
THIS TIP WAS INSPIRED BY JORDAN GOLDMEIER ON THE FOLLOWING EXCEL TV EPISODE:
John Michaloudis is a former accountant and finance analyst at General Electric, a Microsoft MVP since 2020, an Amazon #1 bestselling author of 4 Microsoft Excel books and teacher of Microsoft Excel & Office over at his flagship MyExcelOnline Academy Online Course.
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