Entering a date
You can enter date and format it to display in a variety of ways. Building your worksheet provides basic information about entering and editing data.
- Click the cell where you want to enter the date.
- Type the date in one of the following formats:
- MM/DD/YY; for example, 4/10/56 or 04/10/56
- DD-MMM-YY; for example, 10-Apr-56
- Press ENTER.
Notes
- You can enter a date and then change the format to display it a different way. Changing the format changes how the date is displayed, but does not change how it is stored or used in calculations. Why do I need different number formats? and Formatting numbers give you more information about changing the date format.
- When you enter the year as two digits, your spreadsheet interprets the date as a year in the 20th century. For example, when you enter 4/10/56, your spreadsheet interprets this date as April 10, 1956 and enters the date number corresponding to this date. To enter a date as a 21st century date, you must enter the year explicitly as four digits; for example, April 10, 2056.
- *** (asterisks) appear in the cell, when the column is not wide enough to display the date, or the date is invalid. Dates not between January 1, 1900 and December 31, 9999 are invalid and display as (***) asterisks. Also a leap year day that does not exist, such as February 29, 1997, is invalid and displays as (***) asterisks.
- If you enter a date without the year (for example in the format 4/10), or if you enter a date without the day (for example 12/97), your spreadsheet interprets your entry as a fraction, performs the calculation, and displays the result.
See also
Selecting and deselecting data
Entering a number
Entering text
Entering a time
Editing data