Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 21, 2026)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Raymond's work requires that he format dates so they show in what he believes is a rather odd format. If, for instance, a cell contains a date of 3/20/26, he needs it to display as "FR 3/20", without the quotes. (FR is a two-character representation of the day of the week, in this case Friday.) Raymond wonders if there is a way to do this as, perhaps, a custom format.
There is no way to do this exactly using a custom format. The reason is that there is no code in custom formats that allow you to create a two-character day of the week. The closest that could be done in a custom format is for a three-character day of the week:
ddd m/d
Even that, though, is a bit off because it won't do the three-character day of the week in uppercase. If you tried to replace "ddd" in the custom format with "dd," that won't work because it would simply return a two-digit day of the month.
So, that leads us to using a formula to come up with the formatted date. If you have the date in cell A1, you could use the following formula:
=LEFT(UPPER(TEXT(A1,"ddd")), 2) & " " & TEXT(A1,"m/d")
This uses the TEXT function to return, first, the three-character day of the week which is converted to uppercase using the UPPER formula. The LEFT function is then used to grab the first two characters of that weekday which is then added to the month/day combination. This returns exactly what Raymond wanted.
The downside to using this approach is that the date returned by the formula is text; it is not an actual date. If we had been able to use a custom format, the underlying date value would have been unchanged. This, though, would be the case for any odd date formatting like this. Because of this potential downside, you may want to retain the actual dates as dates, even if it is in a hidden column or a hidden worksheet.
You could also, if desired, create a macro that would return a string with the formatted date. Here's a simple user-defined function:
Function FmtDate(d As Date) As String
Dim s As String
s = UCase(Left(WeekdayName(Weekday(d)), 2))
s = s & " " & Format(d, "m/d")
FmtDate = s
End Function
You can then use the function in the following way in your worksheet:
=FmtDate(A1)
This assumes the date is in A1, and the function returns a date string formatted as Raymond desires.
Note:
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2026-03-24 18:42:43
J. Woolley
Here's a solution for Raymond suggested by Joe:
Select the cells that need to be formatted like DD m/d.
Assuming A1 is the first cell in the selection, create 7 new conditional formatting rules with the following 7 formulas (one for each rule):
聽聽聽聽=(WEEKDAY(A1)=1)聽聽聽聽--聽聽聽聽result is TRUE for Monday
聽聽聽聽=(WEEKDAY(A1)=2)聽聽聽聽--聽聽聽聽result is TRUE for Tuesday
聽聽聽聽路路路
聽聽聽聽=(WEEKDAY(A1)=7)聽聽聽聽--聽聽聽聽result is TRUE for Saturday
If the first cell in the selection is not A1, substitute that cell for A1 in each of the 7 formulas.
Define a custom number format for each of the 7 rules:
聽聽聽聽"SU" m/d聽聽聽聽--聽聽聽聽1st rule's custom number format
聽聽聽聽"MO" m/d聽聽聽聽--聽聽聽聽2nd rule's custom number format
聽聽聽聽路路路
聽聽聽聽"SA" m/d聽聽聽聽--聽聽聽聽7th rule's custom number format
Date serial numbers in the selected cells will display as Raymond requires.
2026-03-23 15:58:54
J. Woolley
My Excel Toolbox includes the following function to set Target's custom number format:
聽聽聽聽=SetNumberFormat([NumberFormat], [Target])
The default is "General" for NumberFormat; if Target is omitted, the formula's cell applies. SetNumberFormat returns Null.
If the date in cell A1 is a constant, Raymond can put this formula in another cell to format A1 like DD m/d:
聽聽聽聽=SetNumberFormat("""" & UPPER(LEFT(TEXT(A1, "ddd"), 2))
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽& """ m/d", A1)
For example, if A1 contains 3/20/2026 as a date serial number, it will be formatted to display FR 3/20. If A1 is on Sheet1 and the formula is on a different sheet, replace the two instances of A1 with 'Sheet1'!A1.
If the date in cell A1 is the result of a formula, it can be formatted like DD m/d by adding SetNumberFormat(NumberFormat) to the end of the formula:
聽聽聽聽=... + SetNumberFormat("""" & UPPER(LEFT(TEXT(A1, "ddd"), 2))
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽& """ m/d")
Since Target is omitted, the formula's cell applies. The formula's result remains a date serial number. Notice a pair of quotation marks within a quoted string results in text containing a single quotation mark.
SetNumberFormat uses RunMacroDelayed_Do, which is discussed in my comment here: https://excelribbon.tips.net/T012892
See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/
2026-03-22 11:57:38
J. Woolley
Here's an alternate version of the Tip's formula suggested by Yvan Loranger:
聽聽聽聽=CHOOSE(WEEKDAY(A1), "SU", "MO", "TU", "WE", "TH", "FR", "SA")
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽& " " & MONTH(A1) & "/" & DAY(A1)
And here's a related version of the Tip's function:
Function FmtDate2(d As Date) As String
聽聽聽聽FmtDate2 = Choose(Weekday(d), "SU", "MO", "TU", "WE", _
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽"TH", "FR", "SA") & " " & Month(d) & "/" & Day(d)
End Function
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