Date Format for Slicer

swong12 · October 30, 2021, 1:25pm

There are existing questions about the date format of the slicer but it seems to involve changing the regional settings in the browser which affects the PBI service?

I am only using the PBI desktop and I can confirm the date (on the bottom right of the Windows taskbar) is showing as dd/mm/yyyy which is the UK format but my PBI file still shows the US format when displaying in the slicer.

Can anyone please assist?

Thanks!

DAX Calculations.pbix (444.2 KB)

Harsh · October 30, 2021, 2:09pm

Hello @swong12,

Thank You for posting your query onto the Forum and for providing the PBIX file.

Well, this is quite an unusual nature because when I imported or downloaded and opened up the file in my machine it works fine i.e. it shows the date format as “DD/MM/YYYY”. Below is the screenshot provided for the reference -

Date Slicer Format

As you suggested that you can see the format correctly - “on the bottom right of the Windows taskbar” but not in the Power BI. So atleast you can try and set the “Regional Settings” under the “Current File” menu to “English (United Kingdom)” and then restart the Power BI Desktop, if required. Below is the screenshot provided for the reference -

Hoping you find this useful and meets your requirements that you’ve been looking for.

Thanks and Warm Regards,
Harsh

MehdiH · October 31, 2021, 2:37pm

Hi,
The only way I know to change the date format in the slicer is to change the Regional settings in the “Windows Control Panel”.
I’m using Windows 10 and my default regional setting is set to French (FR) there for the date format in the slicers are always in dd/mm/yyyy format even if I choose another (or set a custom) format for the dates fields.

However, if I change the Regional setting to English (US) , the slicer is updated and now it shows dates in mm/dd/yyyy format.

Remarks:

First, after setting the regional options, you have to save, close and open again the report to get the new format in the slicer.
Second, I found on the net a blog post mentioning that you also have to add the appropriate language to Windows. In my case I have both, French for France and English for US languages. ( ::: Uma’s Blog :::: How to change date format in the PowerBI slicer (umashanthan.blogspot.com))
Third, I found another blog post that mention, and this is to get the correct format using a browser, that chrome and firefox have there own regional (language) setting options. ( Darren Gosbell [MVP] - Random Procrastination - Friday, March 1, 2019 Entries (archive.org)).

I hope you will find this helpful and solve your issue.

Best Regards
Mehdi Hammadi

EnterpriseDNA · November 2, 2021, 10:58pm

Thank you so much for the very detailed answer @MehdiH and @Harsh

Hello @swong12 , if the inquiry was answered kindly mark the response that you think best helped you. Thank you so much.

swong12 · November 3, 2021, 1:54pm

Thanks, @MehdiH @Harsh

I have solved the issue by changing the regional settings in Control Panel. However, this is strange behaviour from Microsoft as my previous settings were English (HK SAR) and we use the dd/mm/yy format. I had to change it to English (UK) and the slicers worked.