Spreadsheet Practice

How to convert YYYYMMDD to a date in Excel

Formula (Excel and Google Sheets)

=DATE(LEFT(A2,4),MID(A2,5,2),RIGHT(A2,2))

Cut out the year, month and day and rebuild the date: =DATE(LEFT(A2,4),MID(A2,5,2),RIGHT(A2,2)).

Result on the example
one result per row in B2, filled down to B6
Works in
Every current version
Google Sheets
Same formula

See it work

The formula is already in B2, filled down to B6. Change any input and the result updates, or edit the formula to experiment.

How it works

LEFT, MID and RIGHT cut the year, month and day out of the eight digits, and DATE puts them together as a real date. They work on numbers too, because the text functions turn the number into text first.

=DATE(LEFT(A2,4),MID(A2,5,2),RIGHT(A2,2))

Result3/5/2026 (46086)

  1. A220260305

    The value in A2.

  2. LEFT(A2,4)"2026"

    LEFT: Characters from the start of text.

    • textA220260305
    • num_chars4
  3. MID(A2,5,2)"03"

    MID: Characters from the middle of text.

    • textA220260305
    • start_num5
    • num_chars2
  4. RIGHT(A2,2)"05"

    RIGHT: Characters from the end of text.

    • textA220260305
    • num_chars2
  5. DATE(LEFT(A2,4),MID(A2,5,2),RIGHT(A2,2))3/5/2026 (46086)

    DATE: Builds a date from parts.

    • yearLEFT(A2,4)"2026"
    • monthMID(A2,5,2)"03"
    • dayRIGHT(A2,2)"05"

In Google Sheets

The same formula works in Google Sheets: =DATE(LEFT(A2,4),MID(A2,5,2),RIGHT(A2,2)). We ran it in Google Sheets mode on the same data and it returns the same results.

Other ways to do it

Each one was run on the same example sheet.

FormulaResultWhen to use it
=DATE(INT(A2/10000),MOD(INT(A2/100),100),MOD(A2,100))3/5/2026, 12/31/2025, 1/10/2026…Does the same with arithmetic instead of text functions.

Common mistakes

  • A date format on 20260305 doesn't work: it is read as day number 20,260,305, beyond the year 9999, and shows as ####.
  • If the column has blanks, wrap it: =IF(A2="","",DATE(…)), or the blank rows show #VALUE!.
  • DATE quietly rolls invalid dates forward: 20260231 becomes March 3, 2026. Check suspicious source values.

Try it yourself

Same data, empty answer cell. Your formula is graded instantly, then re-checked on changed data, so a typed-in number won't pass.

Convert YYYYMMDD to a date

In B2, convert the eight-digit YYYYMMDD number in A2 to a real date, and fill down to B6.

Questions

How do I convert the date back to YYYYMMDD?

=TEXT(B2,"yyyymmdd") gives text; wrap it in -- for a number.

What about DDMMYYYY numbers?

Pad them to 8 digits first, since a leading zero is lost: =DATE(RIGHT(A2,4),MID(TEXT(A2,"00000000"),3,2),LEFT(TEXT(A2,"00000000"),2)).

What if the value includes a time, like 202603140930?

Add the time from the last four digits: =DATE(LEFT(A2,4),MID(A2,5,2),MID(A2,7,2))+TIME(MID(A2,9,2),RIGHT(A2,2),0).

Checked by running on 2026-10-30: every formula and result on this page was calculated by the Spreadsheet Practice formula engine, in both Excel and Google Sheets modes.