To get rid of the problem, all you have to do is convert dates stored as text into dates. Launch Microsoft Excel 2010 and open the spreadsheet you want to edit.

To convert a serial number to a date format, follow the steps below. Select the cell you want to format. On the Home tab in the Number group, click the bottom right arrow.

The purpose of the Convert Text to columns wizard is to separate the content of one excel cell into separate cells. You can set the delimiters that your data contain and set the column data format.

Microsoft Excel depends on data that’s stored correctly. If you receive text values that should be real numbers, use one of these methods to get you back to the real work.