Date format in .csv differs from Alteryx's

Hi! I'm having trouble with three fields where I have the following formulas:

Accounting date: DateTimeFormat(DateTimeParse("2026-01-09", "%Y-%m-%d"),"%Y/%m/%d")

Date Created: DateTimeFormat(DateTimeNow(), "%Y/%m/%d")

Period name: DateTimeFormat(DateTimeParse("2026-01-09", "%Y-%m-%d"),"%b-%y"

I need the format to be YYYY-MM-DD but when I open the file in Excel (output is a .csv) I see it as MM-DD-YYYY no matter what I do. I have already tried several updates ChatGPT recommended but cannot fix it (i.e: making sure the format is V_WString, forcing the fields to be text by using ToString in a separate formula, adding ' to the beggining of the formula, etcetera)

I appreciate your help, thank you!

Accepted answers

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carlosteixeira

Hello @CEGC

You can try changing the data type before saving the CSV as vstring.

CEGC

Hi! Yes, I tried but is not working

CEGC

Here's the workflow attached so you can take a look at what I'm doing

Template builder example for alteryx community.yxmd

Example for alteryx.xlsx

IgnacioVilaplana

Hi @CEGC. What you’re running into is Excel behavior, not Alteryx:

A CSV has no data types or “format” metadata—it’s just text.
When you double-click a CSV, Excel auto-detects dates and re-displays them using your regional “short date” format (often MM-DD-YYYY), even if the file contains YYYY-MM-DD.

You can’t “force display format” in Excel by writing a CSV. Open the CSV in Notepad/TextEdit—if you see 2026-01-09, then Alteryx did its job and Excel is just reformatting on open.

CEGC

Thank you Ignacio, so there is no way to see the data in the desired format because Excel will automatically force the display format every time the file is open, right?

IgnacioVilaplana

Exactly, there is nothing you can do from Designer that will, no matter what, work in your case. Because the change needs to come from Excel. What you can do in Excel is importing the CSV (don’t double-click open), by:

Excel → Data → From Text/CSV
Select the CSV → Transform Data
Select the date column → set Data Type = Text (keeps yyyy-mm-dd exactly)
Close & Load

FláviaB

¡Hola, @CEGC! Gracias por compartir tu pregunta. Te recordamos que, dado que estás publicando en la comunidad en español, puedes escribir en español para que otros usuarios puedan ver tu publicación con mayor facilidad.😊

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