Monday 12 November 2018

How to make date YYYY-MM-DD (ISO-8601) the default in Excel?


In Excel how can I make the ISO8601 date format, yyyy-mm-dd, the default? Windows locale is English(CA) or English(US). We're using Excel 2013, though a generic answer for as many versions as possible is preferred.


Using a custom format as in How do I enter dates in ISO 8601 date format (YYYY-MM-DD) in Excel (and have Excel recognize that format as a date value)? doesn't work, because it needs to be repeated for every new field. This is especially painful when working with CSV files.


[XKCD Public Service Announcement: Our different ways of writing dates as numbers can lead to online confusion. That's why in 1988 ISO set a global standard numeric date format. This is **the** correct way to write numeric data: 2013-02-27. The following formats is discouraged {insert list of everything else}.



Answer



For that you actually need to change the whole Windows date format. For that, go to:


Control Panel > Regional and Language Options > Change date, time or number formats


There, choose for Short date the yyyy-MM-dd format, and done!


Here's the proof it works. Even if you write another date format, Excel will automatically convert it to the system's default.


Excel date format changing


Keep in mind that this will also change the way Windows displays the date.


Windows date format set to yyyy-MM-dd


Source


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