Custom date formats in Tableau - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

This data shows three dates in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD).

Cell	Value
A1	Date
A2	2024-01-15
A3	2024-07-04
A4	2024-12-25

Formula Trace

FORMAT([Date], 'MMM dd, yyyy')

Step 1: FORMAT(DATE('2024-01-15'), 'MMM dd, yyyy')

Step 2: FORMAT(DATE('2024-07-04'), 'MMM dd, yyyy')

Step 3: FORMAT(DATE('2024-12-25'), 'MMM dd, yyyy')

Cell Reference Map

    A   
1 |Date |
2 |2024-01-15|
3 |2024-07-04|
4 |2024-12-25|

The formula uses the dates in cells A2, A3, and A4 to apply the custom date format.

Result

    A            B          
1 |Date       |Formatted Date|
2 |2024-01-15 |Jan 15, 2024 |
3 |2024-07-04 |Jul 04, 2024 |
4 |2024-12-25 |Dec 25, 2024 |

Column B shows the dates from column A formatted with the custom format 'MMM dd, yyyy'.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does 'MMM' represent in the custom date format?

A Abbreviated month name like Jan, Feb

B Full month name like January, February

C Day of the month

D Year in two digits

Key Result

FORMAT formats a date field into a text string using a custom pattern like 'MMM dd, yyyy'.