Converting date values to text format in Google Sheets

Other Questions Google Sheets
1

I need help with changing date cells into text format within my Google Sheets document.

My spreadsheet contains a column with dates that appear in different formats. I want to make a new column where these same dates show up as plain text instead of date values. Here’s what I’m trying to achieve:

original_date    text_version
15-03-2023      "15-03-2023"
3/15/2023       "3/15/2023"
2023-03-20      "2023-03-20"

The quotes just show that these should be text strings rather than actual date formats. What’s the best way to do this conversion in Google Sheets?

2

Copy your date column and use Paste Special to convert them to text. Hit Ctrl+C on the date column, click where you want the text versions, then right-click and choose “Paste special” > “Values only”. Next, format that column as “Plain text” through Format > Number > Plain text. This keeps how the dates look but turns them into actual text strings. I’ve done this tons of times when exporting to systems that need text input instead of date objects.

3

if u got a lot of dates, use array formulas, like =ARRAYFORMULA(TEXT(A1:A, “dd-mm-yyyy”)); makes it way quicker! hope it helps!

4

The TEXT function is perfect for this. Use =TEXT(A1,“@”) in your new column - it converts any date format to text while keeping how it looks. The @ symbol makes Google Sheets treat the value as text exactly as displayed. I found this after wrestling with similar conversions where I needed the exact formatting preserved. Drag the formula down and it handles mixed date formats automatically without messing up the appearance. Way faster than doing it manually.