How to Format Dates in Power BI

In this article, we will show you, How to Format Dates in Power BI with example. Using these formatting options, you can extract Year, Month, Day, Day Number, Day name, Month Start and End etc.

How to Format Dates in Power BI

To demonstrate these date formats, we are going to use the SQL table that we imported in Enter Data article.

In order to format dates in any table, please click Edit Queries option under the Home tab.

Clicking Edit Queries option will open a new window called Power Query Editor.

From the below screenshot you can see the HireDate column. To demonstrate the formatting options, we are going to use this column.

There are couple of ways to format dates in power bi

First approach to Format Dates in Power BI

Please select the Date Column and right-click on it will open the context menu. Select the Transform option and select the formatting option. For now, we are selecting the Year. It means, this property will extract and display the Years from Hire date

From the below screenshot you can see, the date and Time in Hire date column is replaced by the Extracted Year

Second approach to Format Dates in Power BI

First, go to Transform Tab. Under this tab, you can see the Date and Time options. You can use these drop down list to format the dates.

clicking the down arrow beside the Date will show you the drop down list of available date formats. For the demo purpose we are selecting Days in Month

From the below screenshot you can see, the date and Time in Hire date column is replaced by the total number of days in a month

Third approach to Format Dates in Power BI

Above specified approaches are replacing the existing column with the formatted date but this approach will add extra column for formmated date.

First, go to Add Column Tab. Under this tab, you can see the Date, Time, and Duration options. You can use these drop down list to format the date and Time.