How to Change Date Format in Power BI

Nothing brings a dashboard to a grinding halt faster than a date that refuses to show up in the right format. Whether your dates are stuck in the U.S. standard M/D/Y format or you simply need a cleaner look for your reports, getting it right is a common headache. This guide will walk you through a few straightforward methods to change the date format in Power BI, from quick changes on a single visual to setting report-wide standards.

First Things First: Why Correct Date Formatting Matters

Before we dive into the "how," it's worth taking a second to cover the "why." Proper date formatting isn't just about making your reports look nice, it directly impacts their clarity and usability. Key reasons include:

• Clarity for Your Audience: A report for a C-level executive might need a concise "Q1 2024" format, while a weekly performance report for a marketing team might work best with "Jan 1 - Jan 7, 2024." Tailoring the format to your audience is essential for easy comprehension.
• Global Consistency: If you're sharing reports internationally, the difference between 04/10/2024 (April 10th in the U.S.) and 04/10/2024 (October 4th in the U.K.) can cause serious confusion. Standardizing formats like DD-MMM-YYYY (e.g., 04-Oct-2024) can prevent misinterpretation.
• Improved Storytelling: Sometimes a date tells a better story as a day of the week or a month name. Displaying "Monday" instead of a full date can help pinpoint weekly trends, like website traffic drops over the weekend.

Method 1: Formatting a Single Column (The Fastest Fix)

This is the most common and direct way to change a date's appearance. It's perfect when you only need to adjust the format of one specific date field throughout your report. You can do this in either the Report View or the Data View.

Follow these quick steps:

1. Either click on a chart in the Report View or navigate to the Data View from the left-hand menu.
2. In the Fields pane (on the right), find and select the date column you want to change. Let's say it's called 'OrderDate'.
3. With the column selected, a new menu tab called Column tools will appear in the top ribbon. Click on it.
4. In the "Formatting" section of the ribbon, you’ll see a ‘Format’ dropdown menu. This is where the magic happens.

From this dropdown, you can select from a list of predefined formats. For example:

• To change 1/15/2024 12:00:00 AM to Tuesday, January 15, 2024, you would select the format with the full day and month spelled out (often called "Long Date").
• To change it to a simple 1/15/2024, you would pick "Short Date."

Creating a Custom Date Format

What if the exact format you need isn't in the dropdown? No problem. You can define your own by typing a custom format code directly into the format box. Here are some of the most common codes you'll use:

• d: The day of the month (e.g., 5)
• dd: The day of the month with a leading zero (e.g., 05)
• ddd: The abbreviated day of the week (e.g., Mon)
• dddd: The full day of the week (e.g., Monday)
• M: The month (e.g., 1)
• MM: The month with a leading zero (e.g., 01)
• MMM: The abbreviated month name (e.g., Jan)
• MMMM: The full month name (e.g., January)
• yy: The last two digits of the year (e.g., 24)
• yyyy: The full four-digit year (e.g., 2024)

By combining these, you can create nearly any format you can imagine. For example:

• For 01-Feb-2024, you would type: dd-mmm-yyyy
• For Q1 2024, you would type: "Q"Q yyyy
• For Feb 24, you would type: mmm yy

Method 2: Using the FORMAT Function in DAX

Sometimes you need to create a new column or a measure that displays a date in a specific text format, without altering your original date column. This is the perfect job for the FORMAT DAX function.

The main reason to use FORMAT is to preserve your original date column (which is a true date/time data type) while creating a separate, text-based column for labels and visuals. This is great for presentation.

How to Create a Formatted Column with DAX:

1. Navigate to the Data view.
2. Select the table you want to add the new column to.
3. In the ribbon, click New column.
4. Type your DAX formula using this syntax: NewColumnName = FORMAT('YourTableName'[YourDateColumn], "YourFormatCode")

For example, if you wanted to create a column showing just the month and year from your 'Sales' table's 'OrderDate' column, the formula would be:

Month-Year = FORMAT('Sales'[OrderDate], "MMM yyyy")

This creates a new column called "Month-Year" with values like "Jan 2024," "Feb 2024," and so on.

A Crucial Tip: Sorting Your New Text Column

There's a catch you need to watch out for. When you use the FORMAT( ) function, Power BI converts your date into a text value. This means if you put a column like "Month-Year" in a chart, it will sort alphabetically by default ("April", "August", "December", "February"...) which is almost never what you want.

The fix is simple: tell Power BI to sort this new text column using the order from your original date column. Here’s how:

1. Make sure you're in the Data view.
2. Click to select your newly created formatted column (e.g., "Month-Year").
3. With the column highlighted, go to the Column tools tab in the ribbon.
4. Click the Sort by column button.
5. From the dropdown menu that appears, select your original date column (e.g., 'OrderDate').

And that's it! Now, whenever you use the "Month-Year" slicer or axis, it will sort chronologically: "Jan 2024", "Feb 2024", "Mar 2024", etc. This "Sort-by-Column" trick is one of the most useful features to learn in Power BI.

Method 3: Changing Date Formats with Regional Settings

If you're finding that Power BI is consistently misinterpreting dates when you load data, the problem might be your report’s regional settings. For instance, if your source CSV file has dates in a DD/MM/YYYY format, but your Power BI is set to a U.S. locale, it will read them as MM/DD/YYYY and cause errors.

You can adjust these settings for either the current file or for all new Power BI projects.

Adjusting for the Current File:

1. Go to File > Options and settings > Options.
2. In the dialog box that appears, look under the CURRENT FILE section and select Regional Settings.
3. In the "Locale for import" dropdown, pick the region that matches your data's source format. For European DD/MM/YYYY dates, you might choose "English (United Kingdom)".

This setting helps Power BI understand the incoming date structure when it's ambiguous, preventing incorrect imports before you even have to format them.

Method 4: Formatting Dates in Power Query

For advanced users who want to control formatting during the data transformation process, Power Query is the place to be. This method is exceptionally useful when your starting "date" is just text (e.g., "20240115") or uses a non-standard delimiter (e.g., "15.01.2024").

You use Power Query not just to change the format, but to properly convert and recognize text as dates in the first place.

1. From the Home ribbon, click on Transform data to open the Power Query Editor.
2. Find the column with your dates. You can identify the current data type by the icon in the column header (e.g., ABC for text, 123 for number).
3. Right-click the column header, select Change Type, and then choose Using Locale… from the sub-menu.
4. A dialogue box will appear allowing you to set the Data Type to Date and the Locale to match the original culture of the data (e.g., ‘German (Germany)’ for ‘dd.mm.yyyy’ formats).
5. Click OK. Power Query will now correctly convert that column into a true date type that Power BI's data model can understand and use for time intelligence calculations.

Once the column has the correct Date data type in Power Query, you can then use any of the methods above (like the column tools or DAX) to control how it is displayed visually in your reports.

Final Thoughts

Getting your dates right in Power BI is all about choosing the right tool for the job. Whether you need a simple visual adjustment, a custom formatted text label, or a foundational fix in your data model, Power BI provides a straightforward way to do it. The key is knowing which method to apply in different scenarios.

Mastering these settings is a great skill, but endlessly tweaking reports across a dozen platforms can be a major time-sink. That's why we built Graphed . It lets you connect all your data sources like Google Analytics, Salesforce, and more, then build real-time dashboards just by describing what you need in plain English. No more hunting for format settings or wrestling with DAX — just clear answers, instantly.