Forum Discussion
How to replicate a Excel text-to-column date conversion
I export data from one of our services and the dates come out in mm/dd/yyyy format. In Excel 2016 I can convert this very easily to dd/mm/yyyy in place without having to create any new columns. This is done by:
1. Text to columns
2. Uncheck delimiters
3. Choose 'Dates' and choose your appropriate format, see below:
How would I replicate this in Power BI? At the moment I'm having to do the conversion in Excel before I import which is frustrating. I could somehow split columns at the "/" and then recombine but this seems too much work. Any simpler suggestions?
Thanks.
there's a simpler way to do it via the PQ GUI:
right-click the column and then go Change Type => Using Locale...
then in the Dialog box select Date for Data Type and English (United States) for Localethis should do the trick :)
5 Replies
In your data model, click on the column. Click on "Modeling" tab. Under data type, click on "Format" drop down and choose the format that you want.
maracles look at my last response with the 4 pictures here
http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/How-to-change-the-date-format/m-p/40462#M15202
there's a simpler way to do it via the PQ GUI:
right-click the column and then go Change Type => Using Locale...
then in the Dialog box select Date for Data Type and English (United States) for Localethis should do the trick :)
