MS Excel: Convert A Date To Text In Excel

Here, are multiple ways to convert Date to text in Excel

1. Convert a Date to Text By Adding an Apostrophe

The easiest and quick way to convert the Excel date to text is, to add an apostrophe (‘) at the start of the date.

The apostrophe symbol will not visible in the Excel worksheet cell but it can be visible in the formula bar and it will inform Excel to treat the data of the cell as a text, not a date.

2. Convert a Date to Text Using Excel Text to Columns

Excel also provides the facility to convert a complete column of the worksheet in one go. You can use Excel text-to-column to convert an entire column to text.

Note: Text to Column command will work only for a single column at a time, you cannot use it for more than one column at a time.

To use Excel "Text to Columns" command to convert dates to text follow the steps mentioned below:

• Select cells a of the single column to convert dates to text (the column should not be more than one).
• Now, go to the "Home" tab at the top of the screen, click on the "Data" tab, and select the "Text to Columns" option.
• A dialogue box will open of "Convert Text to Columns wizard". Within this have multiple options:
  • Check if the "Delimited" option is checked or not (This option should be selected) and click on the "Next" button.
  • Unselect the delimiters and again click on the "Next" button.
  • Here, below "Column Data Format", select the option "Text" and click on the "Finish" button to complete the process.

3. Convert a Date to Text Using the Excel Text Function

Excel text function is used to convert a numeric value (i.e. Date or Time) to text by using the user-defined format.

TEXT( value, format_text )
Where:

• Value: Value represents the value to be converted into text.
• Format_text: Format_text represents a text string that defines the formatting of the value.

Excel text function example is explained in the below image (converting date 01/01/2016 into a text string with different formats).