How to use Date formula in Google Sheets

By SpreadCheaters
Page last updated: 19/04/2023 | Next review date: 19/04/2025
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Syntax of the formula

Let’s see the syntax of the DATE function first to understand how to use this function properly without any errors. The syntax of the function is as follows;

=DATE(YEAR, MONTH, DAY)

YEAR: 

Enter any year here in four digits for example, 2022 explicitly or use a cell reference which has this information in the required format.

MONTH: 

Enter any month here using two digits for example, 11 for November explicitly or use a cell reference which has this information in the required format.

DAY: 

Enter any day here using one or two digits for example, 7 or 07 explicitly or use a cell reference which has this information in the required format.

Now that we have understood the syntax of the date function, we’ll implement this and insert dates properly in our Google Sheet.

Dates are a very frequently used data type in Google Sheets and Excel when you need to keep track of project timelines. Therefore, all sheets having the project planning data must have a column of dates in them. However, if the dates are not properly formatted then dates can behave erratically. Sometimes the date formats are not recognized and therefore google sheets won’t treat the dates as proper dates. That’s where the date formula comes in very handy. In this tutorial we’ll learn how to use the DATE function in Google Sheets to enter dates properly. 

Step 1 – Create dates by entering the parameters explicitly to DATE function

– We can insert a date in google sheets by passing the required parameters to the DATE function explicitly. In this case the formula will be;
=DATE(2016,11,07)

This will produce the date of 7th November 2016. Using the same procedure we can create any date as per our requirements.

Step 2 – Create dates by using cell values in DATE function

– We can insert a date in google sheets by passing the required parameters to DATE function through cell values as well.  However, all the parameters must be in required format. In our case the formula will be;
=DATE(A2,B2,C2)

Because we had the year stored in A2, month stored in B2 and day stored in C2. Therefore, the date formula has produced the desired results.