Problems with converting text to date (YYYY-MM-DD) in Excel (Mac)

Question

I have been able to convert this date to YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm but not anymore. What can I do to convert this date.

Sep 15, 2014 9:30:32 AM

You need to know that I'm using Swedish keyboard, date and region.

Example:

Order # Purchased On 100026881 Sep 15, 2014 9:30:32 AM 100026880 Sep 15, 2014 9:10:56 AM 100026879 Sep 15, 2014 9:09:10 AM 100026878 Sep 15, 2014 9:03:27 AM 100026877 Sep 15, 2014 8:57:02 AM 100026876 Sep 15, 2014 8:38:37 AM 100026875 Sep 15, 2014 6:54:29 AM 100026874 Sep 15, 2014 5:03:23 AM 100026873 Sep 15, 2014 2:45:50 AM 100026872 Sep 15, 2014 1:42:26 AM 100026871 Sep 14, 2014 11:20:31 PM 100026870 Sep 14, 2014 11:16:29 PM 100026869 Sep 14, 2014 11:11:15 PM 100026868 Sep 14, 2014 11:10:06 PM 100026867 Sep 14, 2014 10:42:56 PM 100026866 Sep 14, 2014 10:41:22 PM 100026865 Sep 14, 2014 10:36:43 PM 100026863 Sep 14, 2014 10:26:13 PM

Answer 1

Formatting a date in Excel 2011 for Mac

You have at least three different ways to apply a date format. Perhaps the fastest is to select a cell or cell range, and then click the Home tab of the Ribbon. In the Number group, click the pop-up button under the Number group title and choose Date to display the date as m/d/yy , where m represents the month 's number, d represents the day number, and yy represents a two-digit year .

Excel has many more built-in date formats, which you can apply by displaying the Format Cells dialog by pressing Command-1 and then clicking the Number tab. You can also display the Number tab of the Format Cells dialog by clicking the Home tab on the Ribbon. Then click the pop-up button under the Number group title and choose Custom from the pop-up menu.

When the Format Cells dialog displays, select the Date category. Choose a Type from the list. Choosing a different Location (language) or Calendar type changes the date types offered.

I hope this may helps..

Answer 2

This should be a comment since I have neither Swedish settings not a Mac but I am suggesting a lookup table:

+-----+----+
| Jan |  1 |
| Feb |  2 |
| Mar |  3 |
| Apr |  4 |
| May |  5 |
| Jun |  6 |
| Jul |  7 |
| Aug |  8 |
| Sep |  9 |
| Oct | 10 |
| Nov | 11 |
| Dec | 12 |
+-----+----+

say named Marray, along with:

 =TEXT(DATE(MID(B2,9,4),VLOOKUP(LEFT(B2,3),Marray,2,0),MID(B2,5,2))+VALUE(TRIM(RIGHT(B2,11))),"[$-41D]mmmm dd, yyyy h:mm:ss AM/PM")  

in C2 and copied down to suit (assuming Sep 15, 2014 9:30:32 AM is in B2).

For single digit dates, perhaps:

=TEXT(DATE(TRIM(MID(B2,8,5)),VLOOKUP(LEFT(B2,3),Marray,2,0),SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(MID(B2,4,3)),",",""))+VALUE(TRIM(RIGHT(B2,11))),"[$-41D]mmmm dd, yyyy h:mm:ss AM/PM")

For me (Windows, Excel 2013, English!) this returns:

It may be necessary to replace all , s with ; , except one inside SUBSTITUTE.

Answer 3

I think that Jeeped might be close to the problem.

My guess is that now the data may have been pasted as text, instead of recognizing the date. ( pnuts had an answer but it's a lot more work than using the builtin Excel functions.)

If the dates are in their own column, like:

     Sep 15, 2014 9:30:32 AM
     Sep 15, 2014 9:10:56 AM
     Sep 15, 2014 9:09:10 AM
     etc

Then you might have to get Excel to parse the text dates.

If the date text is in B2 , put this formula in another cell (say B3 ):

     =DATEVALUE(B2) + TIMEVALUE(B2)

Then you can format with this custom formatting string: yyyy-mm-dd h:mm:ss AM/PM

Which will give you:

      2014-09-15 9:30:32 AM
      2014-09-15 9:10:56 AM
      2014-09-15 9:09:10 AM
      etc.

Hope this helps.