How to remove date format in Excel

You can watch a video tutorial here.

Excel usually applies the ‘General’ format to values entered in cells, both for letters and for numbers. If a number appears to be a date, Excel formats it as a date. This is usually quite useful but you may want to remove the date format. Internally, the date is stored as the number of days since January 1, 1900, so removing the date format will convert the date into a number. 

Option 1 – Using the menu option 

Step 1 – Choose the button on the ribbon

• Select the cells for which the date formats have to be removed
• Go to Home > Editing
• Expand the Clear dropdown

Step 2 – Clear the format

• Choose Clear Formats

Step 3 – Check the result

• The date format is removed
• The date is converted into a number

Option 2 – Use the Format Cells option 

Step 1 – Open the Format Cells box

• Select the cells for which the date formats have to be removed
• Right-click and select Format Cells  from the context menu

OR

Go to Home > Number  and click on the arrow to expand the menu

OR

Go to Home > Cells > Format > Format Cells

OR

Press Ctrl+1

Step 2 – Choose the format

• Under Category, choose ‘General’
• Click OK

Step 3 – Check the result

• The date format is removed
• The date is converted into a number