Convert a Text Column to Date in Power Query M

Notes

Setting the locale ("en-US" for MM/DD/YYYY, "en-GB" for DD/MM/YYYY, and so on) prevents Power Query from misreading ambiguous dates.

Requirements

• A text column containing date-like values.

How to use this snippet

1. In Power BI Desktop, choose Transform data to open Power Query, then open the Advanced Editor on a query (or start from a blank query).
2. Paste the snippet and replace the placeholder names (tables, columns, file paths) with your own. Check the requirements above first.
3. Run it through the Power Query M Formatter to tidy the layout.

Related Power Query M snippets

• Convert a Text Column to NumberConverts a text column containing numeric values into a proper Number type.
• Convert Every Column to TextChanges the type of every column in a table to text in one step, useful before exporting or comparing rows.
• Convert Currency Text to Number ($1,200.50)Strips currency symbols and thousands separators from a text value before converting it to a proper number.
• Parse a Non-Standard Date FormatConverts a text date stored as a fixed-width string, like "20240115", into a real Date value.
• Convert Text Values to True/FalseMaps text values like "Yes"/"No" to a proper logical (Boolean) column.
• Convert Percent Text to DecimalConverts a text value like 45% into its decimal equivalent (0.45) as a proper number.

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