What are Date and Time Functions in Google Sheets?

Google Sheets is a powerful and versatile spreadsheet application that allows you to store, manipulate, and analyze data. One of the features that makes Google Sheets so useful is the ability to work with dates and times. Dates and times are essential for many tasks, such as scheduling, planning, reporting, tracking, and calculating.

However, working with dates and times can also be challenging, especially when you need to convert, format, or compare them. That’s why Google Sheets provides a set of functions that can help you handle dates and times more easily and efficiently. These functions are called date and time functions.

What are Date and Time Functions?

Date and time functions are special formulas that can perform various operations on dates and times, such as:

Creating a date or time value from individual components (such as year, month, day, hour, minute, second)
Extracting a specific component from a date or time value (such as the day of the week, the month name, the hour of the day)
Calculating the difference between two dates or times (such as the number of days, months, or years)
Adding or subtracting a certain amount of time from a date or time value (such as adding 2 hours or subtracting 3 days)
Converting a date or time value from one format to another (such as from text to number or from local to UTC)
Displaying the current date or time in your spreadsheet

Date and time functions can accept various types of arguments, such as:

Cell references that contain date or time values
Text strings that represent dates or times in a known format
Numbers that correspond to dates or times in a serial format
Other date and time functions that return date or time values

Date and time functions can return different types of results, such as:

Date or time values that can be formatted and displayed in various ways
Numbers that represent the amount of time units (such as days, hours, minutes) between two dates or times
Text strings that contain formatted dates or times
Logical values that indicate whether a condition is met (such as whether a date is valid or whether a time is before noon)

How to Use Date and Time Functions in Google Sheets?

To use date and time functions in Google Sheets, you need to follow these general steps:

Enter the name of the function followed by an opening parenthesis in a cell where you want to display the result.
Enter the arguments for the function separated by commas inside the parenthesis. The arguments can be cell references, text strings, numbers, or other functions. Make sure to use quotation marks around text strings and follow the syntax rules for each function.
Close the parenthesis and press Enter to complete the formula. The result will appear in the cell where you entered the formula.
Format the result as desired using the Format menu or toolbar options.

For example, if you want to create a date value from the year 2023, the month 10, and the day 9, you can use the DATE function like this:

=DATE(2023,10,9)

The result will be 10/9/2023 in the default date format. You can change the format to display the date in a different way, such as 9-Oct-2023 or October 9th 2023.

What are Some Examples of Date and Time Functions in Google Sheets?

There are many date and time functions available in Google Sheets, each with its own purpose and syntax. Here are some examples of some common and useful date and time functions:

NOW

The NOW function returns the current date and time as a date value. You can use this function to display the current date and time in your spreadsheet or to perform calculations based on the current date and time.

For example, if you want to display the current date and time in cell A1, you can use this formula:

=NOW()

The result will be something like 10/9/2023 2:28:17 AM in the default date and time format. You can change the format to display only the date or only the time or use a different style.

TODAY

The TODAY function returns the current date as a date value. You can use this function to display the current date in your spreadsheet or to perform calculations based on the current date.

For example, if you want to display the current date in cell A1, you can use this formula:

=TODAY()

The result will be something like 10/9/2023 in the default date format. You can change the format to display the date in a different way.

DATEVALUE

The DATEVALUE function converts a provided date string in a known format to a date value. You can use this function to convert text dates into numeric dates that can be formatted and manipulated.

For example, if you have a text string “October 9th 2023” in cell A1 and you want to convert it to a date value, you can use this formula:

=DATEVALUE(A1)

The result will be 10/9/2023 in the default date format. You can change the format to display the date in a different way.

DATEDIF

The DATEDIF function calculates the number of days, months, or years between two dates. You can use this function to find out how long a period of time is or how old something or someone is.

For example, if you have a start date in cell A1 and an end date in cell B1 and you want to calculate the number of years between them, you can use this formula:

=DATEDIF(A1,B1,“Y”)

The result will be a number that represents the number of years between the two dates. You can change the last argument to “M” for months or “D” for days.

EDATE

The EDATE function returns a date a specified number of months before or after another date. You can use this function to find out the date after or before a certain number of months.

For example, if you have a date in cell A1 and you want to find out the date 6 months after that date, you can use this formula:

=EDATE(A1,6)

The result will be a date that is 6 months after the date in cell A1. You can change the second argument to a negative number to find out the date before a certain number of months.

Conclusion

Date and time functions are powerful tools that can help you work with dates and times in Google Sheets. By using these functions, you can create, extract, format, convert, compare, and calculate dates and times with ease and accuracy. You can also combine these functions with other functions and operators to create more complex and dynamic formulas.

What are Date and Time Functions in Google Sheets?