Sometimes while entering dates in Excel, you will see a number, for example 44541, rather than the date 12/11/2021.

What does this number mean and how can you change it to a normal date?

First off, you must understand that Excel can display a date in a variety of month-day-year formats, or it can display a date in serial format.

A date in serial format, such as 44541, is simply a positive integer that represents the number of days between the given date and January 1, 1900 (both the current date and January 1, 1900 are included in the count).

Below, the value 44,541 in cell C2 indicates a date that is 44,541 days after January 1, 1900 (including both January 1, 1900 & the day 44,541).

To display this in a month-day-year format, copy the value in cell C2 to cell D2 and then simply format the cell as a Short Date.

Now we can see that the date in cell D2 is displayed in the month-day-year format.