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Ideal and unequivocal date format for import to Excel


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)?date format excelImporting specific date format to Excel from Microsoft SQL ServerShow date format in Excel as the OS defaultDate format worldwide in ExcelConverting text date into standard date format in Excel 2010How to set date format when manually inserting date on excel, without changing regional settings?Prevent excel from considering date based on system's date formatTable column has non-standard date format, but Excel won't recognise date for that formatExcel Power Query date format messup













1















Our software is used by folks around the world, so their PC's run different locales which particularly affects the presentation of dates. I need to export from our software a file to be imported into Excel by those users.



Now, bear in mind that different locales display dates in different formats - for example in the UK its is dd/mm/yy and the US has mm/dd/yy. I want the date data to appear to the users who load the file in their own locale format. But I need to write the files out of my system in a standard manner. So I can't write a format sympathetic to the locale of the recipient.



I am assuming that excel reads date data, and converts it to a display format for the locale setting of the viewer.



What is the clear and unequivocal data format to write dates into a file that will import into Excel, respecting locale, that will appear in Excel as a correctly formatted date.



I did some research with Google but could not find an obvious answer. I considered an ISO format but got mixed information from Google on that one, so am asking the question here.










share|improve this question









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Vanquished Wombat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 3





    yyyymmdd is probably the best I've found between software packages.

    – Jeeped
    19 hours ago











  • I would agree in principle, but if you make the scope of dates 'all time' then what does 20120120 mean - is it 20th Jan 2012 or 20th Dec in the year 0120. I know its a dodgy example but without any kind of format indicator it IS open to interpretation, so fails the unequivocal test.

    – Vanquished Wombat
    19 hours ago






  • 1





    Part of it is also communicating the chosen date format to your users.

    – cybernetic.nomad
    17 hours ago






  • 1





    The ideal, unambiguous format may simply be: "January 20th, 2012"

    – cybernetic.nomad
    17 hours ago











  • @cybernetic.nomad - but that's kind of my point, I want Excel to do the presentation work and respect the locale of the viewer. I am working at the data end of the deal and I just want to know how to give Excel a date that will be perfectly understandable to Excel. Does January 20th 2012 import into a French local with the correct month name, for example?

    – Vanquished Wombat
    10 hours ago
















1















Our software is used by folks around the world, so their PC's run different locales which particularly affects the presentation of dates. I need to export from our software a file to be imported into Excel by those users.



Now, bear in mind that different locales display dates in different formats - for example in the UK its is dd/mm/yy and the US has mm/dd/yy. I want the date data to appear to the users who load the file in their own locale format. But I need to write the files out of my system in a standard manner. So I can't write a format sympathetic to the locale of the recipient.



I am assuming that excel reads date data, and converts it to a display format for the locale setting of the viewer.



What is the clear and unequivocal data format to write dates into a file that will import into Excel, respecting locale, that will appear in Excel as a correctly formatted date.



I did some research with Google but could not find an obvious answer. I considered an ISO format but got mixed information from Google on that one, so am asking the question here.










share|improve this question









New contributor




Vanquished Wombat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 3





    yyyymmdd is probably the best I've found between software packages.

    – Jeeped
    19 hours ago











  • I would agree in principle, but if you make the scope of dates 'all time' then what does 20120120 mean - is it 20th Jan 2012 or 20th Dec in the year 0120. I know its a dodgy example but without any kind of format indicator it IS open to interpretation, so fails the unequivocal test.

    – Vanquished Wombat
    19 hours ago






  • 1





    Part of it is also communicating the chosen date format to your users.

    – cybernetic.nomad
    17 hours ago






  • 1





    The ideal, unambiguous format may simply be: "January 20th, 2012"

    – cybernetic.nomad
    17 hours ago











  • @cybernetic.nomad - but that's kind of my point, I want Excel to do the presentation work and respect the locale of the viewer. I am working at the data end of the deal and I just want to know how to give Excel a date that will be perfectly understandable to Excel. Does January 20th 2012 import into a French local with the correct month name, for example?

    – Vanquished Wombat
    10 hours ago














1












1








1








Our software is used by folks around the world, so their PC's run different locales which particularly affects the presentation of dates. I need to export from our software a file to be imported into Excel by those users.



Now, bear in mind that different locales display dates in different formats - for example in the UK its is dd/mm/yy and the US has mm/dd/yy. I want the date data to appear to the users who load the file in their own locale format. But I need to write the files out of my system in a standard manner. So I can't write a format sympathetic to the locale of the recipient.



I am assuming that excel reads date data, and converts it to a display format for the locale setting of the viewer.



What is the clear and unequivocal data format to write dates into a file that will import into Excel, respecting locale, that will appear in Excel as a correctly formatted date.



I did some research with Google but could not find an obvious answer. I considered an ISO format but got mixed information from Google on that one, so am asking the question here.










share|improve this question









New contributor




Vanquished Wombat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.












Our software is used by folks around the world, so their PC's run different locales which particularly affects the presentation of dates. I need to export from our software a file to be imported into Excel by those users.



Now, bear in mind that different locales display dates in different formats - for example in the UK its is dd/mm/yy and the US has mm/dd/yy. I want the date data to appear to the users who load the file in their own locale format. But I need to write the files out of my system in a standard manner. So I can't write a format sympathetic to the locale of the recipient.



I am assuming that excel reads date data, and converts it to a display format for the locale setting of the viewer.



What is the clear and unequivocal data format to write dates into a file that will import into Excel, respecting locale, that will appear in Excel as a correctly formatted date.



I did some research with Google but could not find an obvious answer. I considered an ISO format but got mixed information from Google on that one, so am asking the question here.







microsoft-excel






share|improve this question









New contributor




Vanquished Wombat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question









New contributor




Vanquished Wombat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 10 hours ago







Vanquished Wombat













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Check out our Code of Conduct.









asked 20 hours ago









Vanquished WombatVanquished Wombat

1063




1063




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New contributor





Vanquished Wombat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






Vanquished Wombat is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.








  • 3





    yyyymmdd is probably the best I've found between software packages.

    – Jeeped
    19 hours ago











  • I would agree in principle, but if you make the scope of dates 'all time' then what does 20120120 mean - is it 20th Jan 2012 or 20th Dec in the year 0120. I know its a dodgy example but without any kind of format indicator it IS open to interpretation, so fails the unequivocal test.

    – Vanquished Wombat
    19 hours ago






  • 1





    Part of it is also communicating the chosen date format to your users.

    – cybernetic.nomad
    17 hours ago






  • 1





    The ideal, unambiguous format may simply be: "January 20th, 2012"

    – cybernetic.nomad
    17 hours ago











  • @cybernetic.nomad - but that's kind of my point, I want Excel to do the presentation work and respect the locale of the viewer. I am working at the data end of the deal and I just want to know how to give Excel a date that will be perfectly understandable to Excel. Does January 20th 2012 import into a French local with the correct month name, for example?

    – Vanquished Wombat
    10 hours ago














  • 3





    yyyymmdd is probably the best I've found between software packages.

    – Jeeped
    19 hours ago











  • I would agree in principle, but if you make the scope of dates 'all time' then what does 20120120 mean - is it 20th Jan 2012 or 20th Dec in the year 0120. I know its a dodgy example but without any kind of format indicator it IS open to interpretation, so fails the unequivocal test.

    – Vanquished Wombat
    19 hours ago






  • 1





    Part of it is also communicating the chosen date format to your users.

    – cybernetic.nomad
    17 hours ago






  • 1





    The ideal, unambiguous format may simply be: "January 20th, 2012"

    – cybernetic.nomad
    17 hours ago











  • @cybernetic.nomad - but that's kind of my point, I want Excel to do the presentation work and respect the locale of the viewer. I am working at the data end of the deal and I just want to know how to give Excel a date that will be perfectly understandable to Excel. Does January 20th 2012 import into a French local with the correct month name, for example?

    – Vanquished Wombat
    10 hours ago








3




3





yyyymmdd is probably the best I've found between software packages.

– Jeeped
19 hours ago





yyyymmdd is probably the best I've found between software packages.

– Jeeped
19 hours ago













I would agree in principle, but if you make the scope of dates 'all time' then what does 20120120 mean - is it 20th Jan 2012 or 20th Dec in the year 0120. I know its a dodgy example but without any kind of format indicator it IS open to interpretation, so fails the unequivocal test.

– Vanquished Wombat
19 hours ago





I would agree in principle, but if you make the scope of dates 'all time' then what does 20120120 mean - is it 20th Jan 2012 or 20th Dec in the year 0120. I know its a dodgy example but without any kind of format indicator it IS open to interpretation, so fails the unequivocal test.

– Vanquished Wombat
19 hours ago




1




1





Part of it is also communicating the chosen date format to your users.

– cybernetic.nomad
17 hours ago





Part of it is also communicating the chosen date format to your users.

– cybernetic.nomad
17 hours ago




1




1





The ideal, unambiguous format may simply be: "January 20th, 2012"

– cybernetic.nomad
17 hours ago





The ideal, unambiguous format may simply be: "January 20th, 2012"

– cybernetic.nomad
17 hours ago













@cybernetic.nomad - but that's kind of my point, I want Excel to do the presentation work and respect the locale of the viewer. I am working at the data end of the deal and I just want to know how to give Excel a date that will be perfectly understandable to Excel. Does January 20th 2012 import into a French local with the correct month name, for example?

– Vanquished Wombat
10 hours ago





@cybernetic.nomad - but that's kind of my point, I want Excel to do the presentation work and respect the locale of the viewer. I am working at the data end of the deal and I just want to know how to give Excel a date that will be perfectly understandable to Excel. Does January 20th 2012 import into a French local with the correct month name, for example?

– Vanquished Wombat
10 hours ago










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