Convert text to date

To convert text in an unrecognized date format to a proper Excel date, you can parse the text and assemble a proper date with a formula based on several functions: DATE, LEFT, MID, and RIGHT. In the example shown, the formula in C6 is: =DATE(LEFT(B6,4),MID(B6,5,2),RIGHT(B6,2)) This formula extract the year, month, and day values separately, and uses the DATE function to assemble them into the date October 24, 2000. Note: before you use a formula, see below for other ways to convert text to dates. Background When you're working with data from another system, you might run into a situation where dates are not properly recognized by Excel, which instead treats the dates like text. For example, you might have text values like this: Text Date represented 20001024 October 24, 2000 20050701 July 1, 2005 19980424 April 24, 1998 28.02.2014 February 28, 2014 When Excel has evaluated a date value as text, one option is to use a formula to parse the text into its components (year, month, day) and use these to make a date with the DATE function. As noted above, I recommend you first try the solutions below (adding zero and using text to columns) before you use a formula. Both workarounds are faster and require less effort.