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Power Query* can easily take a column of dates and extract, or convert it into various handy date formats with the click of a few buttons.

For example, the dates in the first column of the table below have been used to quickly create new columns displaying various date information:

Power Query Date Formats

The above examples are just a taste of what is possible. Thereā€™s a huge list of options in the Date menus available from the Add Column tab, which will keep your original date column and add a new one in the format you choose, or from the Transform tab, which will convert the selected date column.

Below is a preview of the options currently available (note: select the Date column first to enable the menu):

date options

*Power Query is available for Excel 2010 onwards.

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Working with Power Query Date Formats

Weā€™ll use this simple table containing dates and sales amounts as our source data. Notice that the table is called ā€˜Table1ā€™:

Table1

Note: My dates are formatted dd/mm/yyyy.

Load to Power Query

In Excel 2010/2013: Power Query tab > From Table or in Excel 2016: Date tab > From Table:

load to Power Query

This will open the Power Query Editor window where you will find the Date tools on both the Transform tab, which changes the format of the selected date column:

Transform tab

Or the Add Column tab, which adds a column based on the selected date column:

Add Column tab

Have a play around with the different options available.

Tips:

  • Date > Age calculates the age in days from the date column date to todayā€™s date.
  • Date > Date Only removes any time element from the Date field and just returns the Date portion.
  • On the Transform tab, Date > Earliest returns the earliest date in the selected column, and Latest returns the latest date.
  • On the Add Column tab, Date > Earliest and Latest require two date columns to be selected. It then creates a new column containing the earliest/latest date for each row.
  • You can also work with time values in the same way. See the Time menu on both the Add Column and Transform tabs:

Time tab

Older Versions of Power Query

Some of the date menu items are new. For example, if your version of Power Query is missing the Month Name, or Day Name then you can achieve the same results by adding a Custom Column (Add Column tab) and using the Date.ToText function. Here are some examples:

Date to Month Name (MMM format)

Create a new column for the month name (note: this will be a text field).

  1. Select the Date column
  2. Add Column tab
  3. Custom Column
  4. Give your new column a name and enter this formula (change the [Date] column name to suit your file):
= Date.ToText([Date], "MMM")
  1. Click OK to enter the formula and create the column

date to month name

Caution: Power Query formulas are case sensitive. Upper case ā€˜Mā€™ refers to month format, whereas lower case ā€˜mā€™ is for minutes. For example:

= Date.ToText([Date], "MMM")

Will return the text, ā€˜Janā€™ from the date 1/1/2017.

= Date.ToText([Date], "MMMM")

Will return the text, ā€˜Januaryā€™ from the date 1/1/2017.

= Date.ToText([Date])

Will simply return the date value as text in the same format itā€™s in.

Date to Day Name

Likewise, we can use the Date.ToText function to convert the date to the day name:

date to day name

=Date.ToText([Date], "ddd")

Will return the text value ā€˜Sunā€™ from the date 1/1/2017.

=Date.ToText([Date], "dddd")

Will return the text value ā€˜Sundayā€™ from the date 1/1/2017.

Tip: Be sure to set the data type for these custom columns containing text names of dates to the Date Type: Text:

change data type to text

 

More Power Query

Click here for more Power Query tutorials.

And if you want to get up to speed quickly, please check out my Power Query course.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jayson Chabot

    Thank you for your help with the short day (Name) function, print screens were greatly appreciated.

    Reply

  2. Darwis Yudi Brata

    Thanks,
    How to make month name locale? i try to change type locale but when i transform to month name, it”s in en-ID. I want in id-ID

    Reply

    • Catalin Bombea

      You can specify the culture in Date.Month function:
      Date.MonthName(#datetime(2011, 12, 31, 5, 0, 0), “id-ID”)

      Reply

  3. Kayla Gnapp

    What can I do to best display information where any date today on is ok in date format but anything before I want to show as past due in the same column so that I can make a pivot table showing my demand?

    Reply

  4. Rita Ren

    As my company’s excel version is old, i can’t use “Name of month” function straightly. I spend lots of time to search a good resolution online and don’t figure it out until find your article!!!! Thanks a lot!

    Reply

  6. Ian Wakeham

    Hi Mynda,

    Still a bit of a Power Query/Get & Transform noob!

    I understand how to use the locale to transform US to UK dates. However I have a column of dates (as text) in both US and UK formats (as well as some blanks). Fortunately, I have a corresponding culture column (mainly “en-GB” and “en-US”, with a random “en-IN” – equivalent to “en-GB”).

    How do I transform the column text to UK dates using the cultures? I’m guessing I have to delve into the formula bar but wondering if there’s a more obvious method?

    Recently discovered your videos on YouTube and must say they’re extremely useful and clearly explained … even the topics I’m unlikely to use!

    All the best,

    Ian

    Reply

    • Philip Treacy

      Hi Ian,

      Add a Custom Column and use the Date.FromText function like so:

      #”Added Custom1″ = Table.AddColumn(#”Added Custom”, “Custom”, each Date.FromText([Date],[Culture]))

      where [Date] is the column with your dates and [Culture] is the column with your culture codes.

      Regards

      Phil

      Reply

  7. Barry Mahbouby

    Hello

    I have a column named “Customer Visible Date” and would like to filter it to everything equal to today and all the dates less than today in my Excel Power Query.

    Reply

  8. Norma Dowell

    When I use the abbreviated month as a slicer, it puts the month in alphabetical order instead of Month order. Is there a way ti force it to show in month order?
    Thanks!

    Reply

  9. Gonzalo

    Hi!
    What if you don’t have a date column, but want to have one with the date the data was imported?
    Thanks

    Reply

    • Mynda Treacy

      Hi Gonzalo,

      You can ‘Add a Column’ and use the DateTime.LocalNow function to timestamp the query, but obviously every time you refresh the query the DateTime.LocalNow would also return the current date, so that may not suit your needs. The alternative is to manually enter that date via ‘Add a Column’.

      Mynda

      Reply

  10. Josep Maria

    Hello,

    Thanks for the post.

    My question is regarding the use of PowerPivot. Can I use it data formated as dd/mm/yy or I should first convert it to mm/dd/yy?

    My input data comes from files in the following date format:

    dd/mm/yy

    * I have tried creating a date table manually, by entering pasting dates in format dd/mm/yy but as soon as they are pasted, excel converts them into format mm/dd/yy

    * I went to the queries and defined the dates as European local format dd/mm/yy

    Yet, when I use the month as slicer on power pivot, I can see dates are recognized as american dates.

    Example:

    01/01/18 is recognized as January 1st, 2018. This OK, no room for mistake.

    02/01/18 is recognized as February 1st, 2018. In fact it is, January 2nd, 2018

    03/01/18 is recognized as March 1st, 2018. In fact it is, January 3rd, 2018

    I would be very greateful if anyone could help me out.

    Sincerely,

    Josep Maria

    Reply

    • Mynda Treacy

      Hi Josep,

      You need to remove the ‘Changed Type’ step in the ‘Applied Steps’ pane. Then right-click the date column header > change type > Using Locale. In the dialog box choose data type: Date. Then choose English (UK) from the drop down list. This should format your dates as dd/mm/yyyy assuming your source data has regional settings of dd/mm/yyyy.

      Mynda

      Reply

  11. Jon

    Hello, is there an easy way to add a number of weekdays to a date? I have a column with the number of days I need to add and a column with the date I need to add them to. Iā€™m using PowerQuery plugin to excel 2010. Thanks!

    Reply

  13. John Knapp

    Hi Mynda,
    I’m using Power Query and am having trouble with week of year and figuring out how to start the week on Monday. Any idea how to update the query?

    Reply

    • Mynda Treacy

      Hi John,

      If you look at the M code that’s generated when you insert the Start of Week column you’ll see that it uses the Date.StartOfWeek function. This function has a second argument that allows you to specify the first day of the week. e.g.

      Date.StartOfWeek(dateTime, Day.Monday)

      More on the Date.StartOfWeek function here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt260707.aspx

      Mynda

      Reply

  14. Laurent SANCHEZ

    Hi, thanks for your post, but for the name of the day or the name of month, you have :

    Name of Day : Date.DayOfWeekName([Date])
    Name of Month : Date.MonthName([Date])

    You can add the culture (French for me) :

    Date.MonthName([Date],”fr”)

    And instead of having text value, you have a date value !

    Reply

    • Mynda Treacy

      Hi Laurent,

      I used the GUI to add the day of week etc. and it doesn’t ask for a locale/culture. I only have an English version of Power Query so I’m curious to know if your version has a field in the dialog that asks what region, or do you have to add it manually by editing the M Code?

      Mynda

      Reply

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