Working with Dates in Google Sheets: A Comprehensive Guide

September 18th, 2023

Handling dates in spreadsheets can sometimes be a tricky business. Google Sheets offers a plethora of functions and techniques to make working with dates seamless and intuitive. This guide will take you through some of the foundational and advanced methods to manage and manipulate dates in your sheets.

1. TODAY and NOW: Fetching Current Date and Time

The TODAY function retrieves the current date, while the NOW function provides both the current date and time.

Example:

Get the current date:

=TODAY()

Get the current date and time:

=NOW()

2. DATE: Creating a Date

The DATE function allows you to construct a date using year, month, and day as inputs.

Example:

Generate a date for January 15, 2023:

=DATE(2023, 1, 15)

3. DATEDIF: Calculating the Difference Between Dates

DATEDIF returns the difference between two dates in terms of days, months, or years.

Example:

To find out how many days are between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023:

=DATEDIF(DATE(2023, 1, 1), DATE(2023, 12, 31), "D")

4. EDATE: Add/Subtract Months to a Date

The EDATE function can adjust a date by a specified number of months.

Example:

Add 3 months to January 1, 2023:

=EDATE(DATE(2023, 1, 1), 3)

5. WEEKDAY: Determining the Day of the Week

WEEKDAY helps ascertain the day of the week for a particular date, returning a number (1 for Sunday, 2 for Monday, and so on).

Example:

Identify the day of the week for January 1, 2023:

=WEEKDAY(DATE(2023, 1, 1))

Conclusion

Dates are integral in data analysis, planning, and various other spreadsheet tasks. By mastering the use of date functions in Google Sheets, you'll be better equipped to handle a range of scenarios, from scheduling to financial forecasting. Continue exploring these functions and combinations thereof to unlock the full potential of date manipulations in Google Sheets.