Conditional formatting

Excel tip:

Converting an American date format to European using Formula

Excel depending on your local setting will only pick up date values of the dd mmm yyyy oders as date type. If you import data from various sources including America their date order is different with data value in mmm dd yyyy, excel can only treat it as text indicated by left aligning it. To overcome this you have to do the the following.

1. Extract the date components mmm dd yyyy, by using the the Text functions LEFT, MID or RIGHT

2. Reorder dd mmm component and concatenate using "&" in the right order this will create a text string with the date in the right order it then needss to be converted to a value so excel can recognise it.

3. To convert to value encase in TEXT function.

4. Format to desired date format.

View all Excel hints and tips