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Why Excel Formulas Use Comma or Semi-Colon

Intermediate Excel Skills: Tutorials and Articles
Reading time: 2 minutes
Post Views: 101,766

Excel formulas may use a comma or semi-colon as a delimiter. This depends on your system settings. Here’s what you need to know:

  • Your Excel settings are based on your computer's regional settings.
  • In some countries, like USA, Canada, Great Britain, Excel uses a comma as the formula delimiter.
Comma delimiter in Excel formula
  • In other countries, like France and Spain, a semi-colon is used instead of a comma.
Semi colon delimiter in Excel formula

How and Where to Change This Option

Don’t waste time searching for this setting in Excel! It’s not there but in Windows settings in the Language and Region settings😮

Finding the list separator in Windows 11 is harder than in older Windows versions. Previously, this dialog box was easy to find in Windows settings. But in Windows 11, Microsoft made it less accessible.

  • Opening Language and Region settings still shows many options
  • But the list separator is not visible 😟
  • You’ll need to dig into advanced settings to access it 😮
Windows 11 no list separator is Language and Region

But, you can easily open the dialog box by calling the program from the Windows searching box 😉👍

  1. Go to the Windows searching bar
  2. Write the command line intl.cpl
  3. Open the app.
shortcut intl cpl

Change the list Separator

  1. The dialog box opens on your country settings
  2. Click on Additional settings ...
  3. Go to the Numbers tab
  4. Change the List Separator symbol.
Change the list separator from comma to semicolon

Warning: Changing Windows local settings affects more than just Excel. It impacts your entire system. Here’s how it can affect your data:

  • It changes the date format for all programs, not just Excel.
  • It alters the way thousand separators are displayed in numbers.
  • It affects decimal separators, which may change from a comma to a dot or vice versa.

Make sure to double-check your data after making these changes. Your formulas and numbers may look different!

Related Articles

  • Change the default Date format in Excel
  • Change the language of Excel
  • Write Months in Any Language in Excel

Frédéric LE GUEN

delimiter, Excel option

2 Comments

  1. RONALD DODGE
    05/05/2025 @ 17:08

    This doesn't explain as to why Excel 2024 is showing a colon as the date separator by default in Excel when it shows as the slash for the date separator within the regional settings.

    Reply

    • Frédéric LE GUEN
      22/06/2025 @ 14:07

      You will find in the options of this dialog box your date separator

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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Why Excel Formulas Use Comma or Semi-Colon

Reading time: 2 minutes
Post Views: 101,766

Excel formulas may use a comma or semi-colon as a delimiter. This depends on your system settings. Here’s what you need to know:

  • Your Excel settings are based on your computer's regional settings.
  • In some countries, like USA, Canada, Great Britain, Excel uses a comma as the formula delimiter.
Comma delimiter in Excel formula
  • In other countries, like France and Spain, a semi-colon is used instead of a comma.
Semi colon delimiter in Excel formula

How and Where to Change This Option

Don’t waste time searching for this setting in Excel! It’s not there but in Windows settings in the Language and Region settings😮

Finding the list separator in Windows 11 is harder than in older Windows versions. Previously, this dialog box was easy to find in Windows settings. But in Windows 11, Microsoft made it less accessible.

  • Opening Language and Region settings still shows many options
  • But the list separator is not visible 😟
  • You’ll need to dig into advanced settings to access it 😮
Windows 11 no list separator is Language and Region

But, you can easily open the dialog box by calling the program from the Windows searching box 😉👍

  1. Go to the Windows searching bar
  2. Write the command line intl.cpl
  3. Open the app.
shortcut intl cpl

Change the list Separator

  1. The dialog box opens on your country settings
  2. Click on Additional settings ...
  3. Go to the Numbers tab
  4. Change the List Separator symbol.
Change the list separator from comma to semicolon

Warning: Changing Windows local settings affects more than just Excel. It impacts your entire system. Here’s how it can affect your data:

  • It changes the date format for all programs, not just Excel.
  • It alters the way thousand separators are displayed in numbers.
  • It affects decimal separators, which may change from a comma to a dot or vice versa.

Make sure to double-check your data after making these changes. Your formulas and numbers may look different!

Related Articles

  • Change the default Date format in Excel
  • Change the language of Excel
  • Write Months in Any Language in Excel
Tags: delimiterExcel option

Frédéric LE GUEN

2 Comments

  1. RONALD DODGE
    05/05/2025 @ 17:08

    This doesn't explain as to why Excel 2024 is showing a colon as the date separator by default in Excel when it shows as the slash for the date separator within the regional settings.

    Reply

    • Frédéric LE GUEN
      22/06/2025 @ 14:07

      You will find in the options of this dialog box your date separator

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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About me 
Privacy Policy

© 2022 – 2026 – excel-tutorial.com. All Rights Reserved.
Excel Tutorial is managed by majordome du net