DATEVALUE

Excel Functions

Convert a date in text format to a valid date

Syntax

EXCEL

=DATEVALUE(date_text)

Arguments

Parameter	Description
`date_text`	A valid date in text format.

Return Value

A valid Excel time as a serial number

Details

Sometimes, dates in Excel appear as text values that are not recognized as proper dates. The DATEVALUE function is meant to convert a date represented as a text string into a valid Excel date. Proper Excel dates are more useful than text dates since they can be formatted as a date, and directly manipulated with other formulas. The DATEVALUE function takes just one argument, called date_text. If date_text is a cell address, the value of the cell must be text. If date_textis entered directly into the formula it must be enclosed in quotes. To illustrate how the DATEVALUE function works, the formula below shows how the text "3/10/1975" is converted to the date serial number 27463 by DATEVALUE: Note that DATEVALUE returns a serial number, 27463, which represents March 10, 1975 in Excel's date s

Examples

To illustrate how the DATEVALUE function works, the formula below shows how the text "3/10/1975" is converted to the date serial number 27463 by DATEV

EXCEL

=DATEVALUE("3/10/1975")  // returns 27463

Examples

In the example shown, column B contains dates entered as text values, except for B15, which contains a valid date. The formula in C5, copied down, is:

EXCEL

=DATEVALUE(B5)

Alternative formula

Notice that the DATEVALUE formula in C15 fails with a #VALUE! error, because cell B15 already contains a valid date. This is a limitation of the DATEV

EXCEL

=A1+0

DATEVALUE

Syntax

Arguments

Return Value

Details

Examples

See Also