# Why does my date show as a number in Excel?

Dates are stored as serial numbers, and the result cell has a number format. Keep the formula, like =B2+C2, and format the cell as a date.

**Excel:** `=B2+C2` (Every current version)

**Google Sheets:** the same formula works.

## Example

Sample data (row 1 is the header):

| A | B | C | D |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Invoice | Invoice date | Terms (days) | Due date |
| INV-301 | 2026-10-01 | 30 |  |
| INV-302 | 2026-10-05 | 15 |  |
| INV-303 | 2026-10-12 | 45 |  |
| INV-304 | 2026-10-20 | 60 |  |
| INV-305 | 2026-10-28 | 30 |  |

Formula in D2, filled to D6: `=B2+C2`

Result: 10/31/2026; 10/20/2026; 11/26/2026; 12/19/2026; 11/27/2026

## How it works

Dates are stored as serial numbers: 46326 is October 31, 2026. Adding 30 days to a date gives another serial number, and in a cell with the General or Number format that is what you see. Formatted as a date, the same value shows as 10/31/2026.

## Other ways

- `=WORKDAY(B2,C2)`: Counts working days instead of calendar days. (The due dates land later, skipping weekends.)
- `=TEXT(B2+C2,"m/d/yyyy")`: Returns the date as text in a fixed format, for joining into messages. (Text, not a date value: it no longer sorts or calculates as a date.)

## Common mistakes

- The fix is the cell format (Ctrl+1, Date), not a different formula.
- Wrapping the date in TEXT makes it look right but turns it into text that won't sort or subtract properly.
- A number in the 40,000s is a date. A small one, like 30, may be a day count wrongly formatted as a date.

## Questions

**Why does Excel store dates as numbers?**

So you can calculate with them: subtracting two dates gives the days between them.

**How do I show the weekday too?**

Use a custom format such as `ddd m/d/yyyy`, or `=TEXT(D2,"dddd")` for the day name.

Every formula and result on this page was checked by running it in the Spreadsheet Practice formula engine on 2026-10-30.

Source: https://spreadsheetpractice.com/formulas/date-shows-as-a-number