Excel Basics · Interactive lesson 3 of 12
Numbers & dates
Excel stores a number as just a number — how it displays is a separate decision. The same stored value 1250 can read as $1,250.00, 125,000.00%, or a date, depending only on the format applied to the cell.
Screens shown: Excel for Microsoft 365 for Windows. Practice works in any browser.
Written tutorialNumber and Date Formats in ExcelSkill check
Try these first:
- Format a price as Currency and a discount as a Percentage.
- Explain the difference between Currency and Accounting format.
- Enter a date and have it display correctly.
- Change how many decimal places a number shows.
All familiar? Skip ahead to M4 — Basic Formulas.
Teach
What you're learning
- General
- No formatting applied — Excel just shows the number as typed.
- Number
- Adds thousands separators and a fixed decimal count, e.g.
1,250.00. - Currency
- A
$sits directly against the digits:$1,250.00. - Accounting
- Like Currency, but the
$is pinned to the left edge of the cell and negative numbers show in parentheses — the format spreadsheets built for finance use. - Percentage
- Multiplies the stored value by 100 and adds
%— the stored0.42displays as42%. - Date
- Excel actually stores a date as a plain number — the count of days since a fixed starting point — and just displays it as a calendar date.
- Decimal places
- The little "increase/decrease decimal" buttons round the display without touching the real stored value underneath.
1 formatted as a date shows January 1, 1900, and today's date is really just a five-digit number in disguise. Try it in the sandbox below.Where to find it in Excel
Home›Number›Number Format
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Item | Price | Discount | Order date | ||||
| 2 | Notebook | $24.50 | 10% | 3/14/2026 | ||||
| 3 | Lamp | $39.00 | 15% | 3/15/2026 | ||||
| 4 | Mug | $8.25 | 5% | 3/18/2026 | ||||
| 5 | ||||||||
| 6 | ||||||||
| 7 | ||||||||
| 8 |
Swipe sideways to see the whole window.
- 1Home tab.
- 2The Number Format box in the Number group lists every format.
- 3Currency, Accounting, Percentage and the date formats change how a value looks, not the value itself.
- 4The cell shows $24.50 while the formula bar keeps the stored value, 24.5. The buttons under the box (%, comma, Increase/Decrease Decimal) are one-click shortcuts.
Rendered view of Excel for Microsoft 365 (Windows). Ribbon layout can differ slightly on Mac, Excel for the web or a narrow window.
Guided practice
Type a number, then switch formats and watch the same stored value change how it reads.
Real-world exercise
Format a price list
Given a list of raw numbers — some prices, some discounts, some dates — format each one to match what it actually represents: prices as Currency, discounts as Percentage, and dates so they read as calendar dates rather than five-digit numbers. This is exactly what a real product or budget sheet needs before anyone else looks at it.
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