Excel may return a serial number instead of a date; because it is stored thus in the backend. Learn how to convert Serial Number to Date.

The date will display in the format you choose, no matter how you enter it. If you type "1/1/19" into a cell with the long date format, Excel will change it to the expanded date.

You can change the date & time format in Google Sheets & Excel Online using this guide. Use different date & time formats in spreadsheets.

When you type a seven-or-ten-digit phone number into an Excel cell that uses the phone number format, Excel will automatically change the way the number looks so that it appears as a phone number.

How to Change to Accounting Format in Excel. The accounting format in Microsoft Excel 2010 is very similar to the currency format---both display the currency symbol next to every number.

Similarly, it's easy to forget to type the currency symbol when you're focusing on the numbers that follow, so using Excel's built-in number format converter is the way forward.