How to convert a date in Excel to ISO 8601 format

Question

I am trying to save a date format in YYYY-MM-DD, for example, 2014-09-01 as a CSV file, but the format reverts back to the M/D/YYYY format when I do.

I tried converting the date as a string in Excel, but every time I open up the CSV file, it's back to the M/D/YYYY format. I need the ISO 8601 date format to be saved in a CSV file. How do I go about doing so?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27388761/how-to-convert-a-date-in-excel-to-iso-8601-format

Answer 1

The basic function is:

=TEXT(A1,"yyyy-mm-ddThh:MM:ss")

Use this to convert your Excel date columns to separate ISO 8601 date columns. Next, copy the ISO 8601 columns onto the originals (paste special: paste values only). Delete the calculated ISO 8601 columns which now have garbage in them because Excel sucks at ISO 8601 dates.

You now have a transformed CSV or TSV or whatnot. Just save as the original format and ignore the stupid Excel whining about it not being its native file format and how you are going to "lose out" somehow by saving as CSV file and try not to think about the hours of your life Microsoft has stolen with that dumb dialog.