change format in date field

Question

I'm using ArcMap 10.7.1.

I have a attribute table with a "date" field" that I would like to sort.  The problem is that the dates are entered in several formats ex. 9/8/21 or 09/08/2018.  There are at least 3 different formats.

What are the steps to reformatting the date field so that it can be sorted?

Thank you!

JohnReynolds1 · Answer

All of the data has been added to the table by me on the same machine.
I was mistaken about the formats. This was the first time I opened the project since last year and my memory was off. I see that I have null records to delete. The different date formats are x/x/xyz, xyz/xyz/xyz xyz/x/xyz and x/xyz/xyz
Thank you!

shan_sarkar · Answer

Hi ,

There is another possibility here, are all the edits being made from one machine? If they are being made from the same machine, are they being made by the same person or same user profile?

I noticed you have not mentioned that Editor Tracking is being used but I have seen similar case when date field is being used the values entered at times differ from machine to machine and user setting made on the user profiles. I cannot say with certainty if this is applicable to your case, but it is good to check it out regardless.

Also, as Jayanta has mentioned it would be great if you could share a screenshot of your field properties so we can move towards resolving this.

Fundamentals of date fields

JayantaPoddar · Answer

I think the data type of your "Date" Field isn't DATE, but TEXT.

Could you share screenshots of the various formats in which your date is defined? We need to standardize them to a single format, and then sort.