by Today we'll discuss what you can do with dates and time in a Google spreadsheet. Let's take a closer look at how you can enter date and time into your table, and how to format and convert them to numbers.
How to insert date and time in Google Sheets
Let's start by entering the date and time into a Google Sheets cell.
Tip. Date and time formats depend on the default locale of your spreadsheet. To change it, go to File > Settings. You'll see a pop-up window where you can set your region under the General tab > Locale. Thus, you'll ensure those date and time formats you're accustomed to.
There are three ways to insert date and time into your Google spreadsheet:
Add date and time manually
Note. No matter how you want the time look like at the end, you should always enter it with a colon. This is essential for Google Sheets to distinguish between time and numbers.
It may seem to be the easiest way but locale settings that I mentioned above play a vital role here. Every country has its own pattern for displaying date and time.
As you all know, the American date format differs from the European one. If you set "United States" as your locale and type in the date in the European format: dd/mm/yyyy, it simply won't work. The entered date will be treated as a textual value. So, pay attention to that.
Tip. You can add today's date much quicker. Type @ in the required cells and continue with the word today:
Google Sheets will recognize your prompt and suggest you add Today's date. Click it, and your text will turn into today's date:
Confirm by pressing Enter.
Make Google Sheets auto-populate your column with date or time
Fill in a few cells with the required date/time/date time values.
Select these cells so you could see a small circle at the bottom right corner of the selection:
Click that circle and drag the selection down, covering all required cells.
You'll see how Google Sheets automatically populates those cells based on two samples you provided, retaining the intervals:
Use key combinations to insert current date and time
Place the cursor into the cell of interest and press one of the following shortcuts:
- Ctrl+; (semicolon) to enter the current date.
- Ctrl+Shift+; (semicolon) to enter the current time.
- Ctrl+Alt+Shift+; (semicolon) to add both, current date and time.
Later you'll be able to edit the values. This method helps you bypass the problem of entering an incorrect date format.
Take advantage of Google Sheets date and time functions
TODAY() — returns the current date to a cell.
NOW() — returns the current date and time to a cell.
Note. These formulas will be recalculated, and the result will be renewed with every change made in the table.
Here you are: you've placed date and time to our cells. The next step is to format the information to display it the way you need it.
As it is with numbers, you can make your spreadsheet return date and time in various formats.
Place the cursor into the needed cell and go to Format > Number. You can choose between four different default formats or create a custom one using Custom date and time setting:
As a result, one and the same date looks different with various formats applied:
As you can see, depending on your needs, there are a few ways to set the date format. It allows displaying any date and time value, from a day to a millisecond.
Make your date/time a part of Data validation.
In case you need to use date or time in Data validation, proceed to Data > Data validation in the Google Sheets menu first:
- As for dates, just set them as criteria and choose the option that suits you best:
- As for time units, since they are absent from these settings by default, you will need to either create an additional column with time units and refer to this column with your Data validation criteria (List from a range), or enter time units directly to the criteria field (List of items) separating them by a comma:
Insert time to Google Sheets in a custom number format
Suppose you need to add time in minutes and seconds: 12 minutes, 50 seconds. Place the cursor to A2, type 12:50 and press Enter on your keyboard.
Note. No matter how you want the time to look like at the end, you should always enter it with a colon. This is essential for Google Sheets to distinguish between time and numbers.
What you'll see is Google Sheets treating your value as 12 hours 50 minutes. If you apply the Duration format to A2, it'll still show the time as 12:50:00.
So how can you make Google spreadsheet return only minutes and seconds?
- Type 00:12:50 to your cell.
To be honest, this one may turn out a tiresome process if you need to enter multiple timestamps with minutes and seconds only.
- Type 12:50 to A2 cell and put the following formula into A3:
=A2/60
Then apply the Duration number format to A3. Otherwise, your table will always return 12 hours AM. - Use special formulas.
Input minutes to A1, seconds — to B1. Enter the following formula to C1:
=TIME(0,A2,B2)
In order to delete excess symbols from our time, set the format again. Go to Custom date and time and create a format that will show only elapsed minutes and seconds:
The TIME function refers to cells, takes the values and transforms them into hours (0), minutes (A1), and seconds (B1).
Convert time to decimal in Google Sheets
Let's move on to various operations you can do with date and time in Google Sheets.
There may be cases when you need to display time as a decimal rather than "hh:mm:ss" to perform various calculations. Why? For example, to count per-hour salary, since you can't perform any arithmetic operations using both, numbers and time.
But the problem disappears if time is decimal.
Let's say column A contains the time you started working on some task and column B shows the end time. You want to know how much time it took, and for that, in column C you use the formula below:
=B2-A2
Copy the formula down cells C3:C5 and get the result in hours and minutes. Then transfer the values to column D using this formula:
=$C2
Then select entire column D and go to Format > Number > Number:
Unfortunately, the result you'll get at first won't say much. But Google Sheets has a reason for that: it displays time as a part of a 24-hour period. In other words, 50 minutes is 0.034722 of 24 hours.
Of course, this result can be used in calculations.
But since we're used to seeing time in hours, you may want to introduce more calculations to your table. To be specific, multiply the number you've got by 24 (24 hours):
Now you have a decimal value, where integer and fractional reflect the number of hours. To put it simply, 50 minutes is 0.8333 hours, while 1 hour 30 minutes is 1.5 hours.
Text-formatted dates to date format with Power Tools for Google Sheets
There's one quick solution for converting dates formatted as text to a date format. It's called Power Tools. Power Tools is an add-on for Google Sheets that allows you to convert your information in a couple of clicks:
- Get the add-on for your spreadsheets from Google Sheets webstore.
- Go to Extensions > Power Tools > Start to run the add-on and click the Convert tool icon on the add-on pane. Alternatively, you can pick the Tools > Convert tool right from the Power Tools menu.
- Select the range of cells that contain dates formatted as text.
- Check the box for the option Convert text to dates and click Run:
Your text-formatted dates will be formatted as dates in just a few seconds.
I hope you've learned something new today. If you have any questions left, feel free to ask them in the comments below.
Next time you'll learn how to calculate the time difference and sum dates and time together.
104 comments
=IF(C9"",NOW(),1) Once the date time is updated with this formula, what should be done so that the time is not updated again?
Hello Umesh,
NOW() is a volatile function meaning it recalculates itself in all cells once anything at all is edited in your spreadsheet. Since there are no other standard formulas for this task, I can only advise you to use scripts. You may try to find the solution here – an overview of Google Apps Script with a lot of helpful content and links:
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/overview
use date in google take out is 1526662987 - how do you figure that out?
Hello Melina,
I'm sorry but your question is not clear. Please give me more details and provide a couple of examples.
IS THERE ANY WAY TO STAMP THE TIME WHEN THE EVENT HAPPENED WITH REFERENCE TO AN DATE WHEN PULLING STOCK DATA ON REAL TIME?
I AM IN SEARCH OF AN FUNCTION WHEN BREAK OUT HAPPENED WITH VOLUME AND PRICE BROKEN WITH REFERENCE TO AN STOCK
PL HELP
ASIANPAINT 2794.1 1.32 2807 2854 2795 2831 1328308 2845 2778.5 1211975 Vol Brkout Buy 2845 2789 1328605 2658 2613 #N/A
Hello Ravindra,
To stamp the time, you'd normally use the NOW() function. However, it's volatile meaning it recalculates itself in all cells once anything at all is edited in your spreadsheet. Since there are no other standard formulas for this task, I can only advise you to use scripts. You may try to find the solution here – an overview of Google Apps Script with a lot of helpful content and links:
https://developers.google.com/apps-script/overview
I wish I could help you better.
Hi,
Is there a way for me to measure the time elapsed between two different dates. I have a date of 13/03/2021, and I have a cell that has the current date. I want a code that measures the difference between these two dates. Is this possible?
Thanks,
Joel
Hi Joel,
Yes, just subtract your date from the current one and format the resulting cell as Number or Duration depending on how you want to see the result. You will find more info about it in this blog post.
Hi,
I'm new to sheets. I'm wondering how I change the time to fifteen minute increments?
Hi Katie,
You need to change the time format. The first two points of the blog post above will tell you how to do that.
Hello
I want to enter medical data into a spreadsheet such as Temperature & Blood pressure and have the Date and Time data auto fill. I tried this formula but it kept changing the date and time info when I made the next entry. =if(A2="","",today()) I don't want the date or time to ever change as long as data is present in A2.
Thanks
Hello,
You see, such functions as TODAY and NOW are volatile: they recalculate themselves in all cells each time anything is edited in the sheet. There are 2 workarounds I can offer:
I'm trying to input a time value in a minutes:seconds format. However, it automatically changes it to hours:minutes:seconds.milliseconds. Is there any way to circumvent this?
Hello Gus,
Looks like your cells are formatted this way. Please try to change the format of your column by following the steps described in the blog post.
why wouldn't google allow data validation for "time" ?
Hello Lanalee,
to use time in data validation, you need to either create an additional column with time units and refer to this column with your Data validation criteria (List from a range), or enter time units directly to the criteria field (List of items) separating them by a comma.
How can I enter a numerical date MM/YY (03/18) into Google Sheets and keep it from converting the YY to the current year (03/20)? Cannot enter dates as text because I want to use DATEIF.
Hello,
I replied to your comment under another blog post, please have a look.
very similar to Justine's question above, i have a column for times on my sheet, and i want them to be in Military time, but i want to input like 0800 or 1450 and it auto format to HH:MM format. and if i do a custom number format like "##:##" it works, for the most part, except for the AM(Morning) times, it will show "8:00" instead of the Proper "08:00". Is there any way to fix this to where it will properly show the first zero?
Hello Kelly,
I'm afraid my answer would be the same. The number format you set simply displays the number as you want, but for Google Sheets it is still a number, not time. You can see that by clicking any such cell: formula bar still shows 1450 as a number.
If this is enough for your goal and you're not going to calculate these timestamps, you can keep leading zeros by creating a custom number format like this: 00:00
Is it possible to drag down a date and time cell but only change the time by increments of 20 minutes as per below?
May-18-2020: 08:00:00
May-18-2020: 08:30:00
May-18-2020: 09:00:00
May-18-2020: 09:30:00
May-18-2020: 10:00:00
May-18-2020: 10:30:00
May-18-2020: 11:00:00
May-18-2020: 11:30:00
May-18-2020: 12:00:00
May-18-2020: 12:30:00
May-18-2020: 13:00:00
May-18-2020: 13:30:00
May-18-2020: 14:00:00
May-18-2020: 14:30:00
May-18-2020: 15:00:00
May-18-2020: 15:30:00
Hello Luis,
Yes, it's possible. Fill the first two cells, but make sure they are of the format Google Sheets understands. I'd advise you to use the Custom date and time formats for that. Please refer to the end of the first paragraph above for details.
Once you enter the first two dates and times, select both cells and then drag them down. Google Sheets will add 30 minutes in each cell automatically.
Creating a User Friendly time sheet that is flexible based upon input.
I almost have everything perfect except.
Is there a way based upon if input was a date and time input vs a decimal input for the same cell.
ex 4/10/2020 7:30:00 or 7:30:00 or 7.5
So I want to give the cell a format for "date and time" OR "decimal" input based upon the input. Is this possible?
Hello Brett,
Once you enter the value, Google immediately recognizes it as Date time, Duration, or Number respectively. However, if you always want to see a tick next to the corresponding format in the Format menu, I'm afraid you'll have to do that manually.
I am trying to make a over time calculation using the formula
=F6-TIME(8,0,0) +(8>F6)
Where F6 has the duration of the workday.
However i get results that are not working so something is wrong.
Eg if the worktime is 0 the result will show 16:00 (24h-8h)
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Hello Henrik,
I'm sorry, I don't understand why you add (8>F6). If this condition is true, "1" will be added, if not true - "0" will be added.
Please try to explain how your over time should be calculated and I'll try to provide you with a correct formula.
Is there an easy way in Sheets to set up a cell for data entry of time so that rather than having to type in 14:54 I can just type in 1454 and the cell will be formatted to 14:54. looking to save data entry stokes.
Hello Justine,
I'm afraid no. These characters are essential for Google Sheets to distinguish between numbers and other formats and it's the simplest way.
I should mention that there's a number behind each time unit. For example, 14:54 stands for 0.620833333333333 for Google Sheets. You could enter numbers like this and then format them as time, but you can hardly call it 'easy', I'm afraid, since you should know exactly what to enter.
So entering 14:54 is the simplest way there is.
Is there a way to change the value of the column to subtract 2 hours from the time entered? Say I enter 15:00 can I have it show 13:00 instead?
Henry,
in one and the same cell - no.
You'll need a formula to subtract 2 hours from your time. For example, you can enter the time to A2 and put the formula below to B2:
=A2-TIME(2,0,0)
Whatever time you enter to A2, B2 will always subtract two hours from it and will show you the result.
Hello, talking about time... I'm new to sheets, coming from excel and still adapting to things I thought were basic and sheets doesnt' do.
I'm trying to write the time manually in a cell, wich by the way is formatted appropriately, and I have to write 8:00 or 8:01, in excel I could just type 8: or 8:1 and because the cell is time formatted it would understand it. Is there a way to do this in sheets or quicker way to manually write time?
Hello Emanuel,
If you enter simply 8:1, Google won't recognize it since it can be 8:10 as well as 8:01. Thus, I'm afraid in Google Sheets you should indicate the time in a way so spreadsheet understands it correctly: with two digits after the colon. This way the time format will be applied automatically.
I think this article would have solved my problem - but I didn.t stop toread it. The moving bar across the bottom is too distracting.
This is worse than auto-play videos - at least you can mute those.
Thank you for your feedback, Flip.
You can make the bar much smaller by clicking on the corresponding button at its upper right corner.
I will pass your feedback to our team so they could take it into account.
agree, the moving bar is distracting. It would be better if it moved when hovering mouse over it rather
Thank you for the feedback, Ibrahim!
Hi Sage,
Below is the script you provided . . . was wondering if you could add another line of code that would set a rule to fix the time range from 8 am to 4 pm on a work day. In event the time data entered falls outside that time range, it would be default set for the next work day at 8 am. Is that possible?
Thank you in advance,
Bruce
_________________________________________________
function formatColCD_ToDateTime() {
// First select columns of interest (C&D in this script) and choose
// Data → Data Validation → Criteria = Date, is valid date.
// This script then: sets the format to be date and time for the range C:D
// after a date is picked in those columns.
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheet = ss.getSheetByName('tblInput');
var c = ss.getActiveCell();
if( c.getColumn() == 3 || c.getColumn() == 4)
{
sheet.getRange('C:D').activate();
sheet.getActiveRangeList().setNumberFormat('M/d/yyyy H:mm:ss');
}
}
HELLO SAGE ,
i was trying your script code in my personal sheet , but after run process completed , it show up some error alike ""Please select an active sheet first. (line 5, file "Code")".
So my question is , how can i add active sheet in that code itself . kindly help me to solve this issue .
I created a script that lets you choose a date from a dropdown, and then auto changes the format to include time. Pasted below:
function formatColCD_ToDateTime() {
// First select columns of interest (C&D in this script) and choose
// Data → Data Validation → Criteria = Date, is valid date.
// This script then: sets the format to be date and time for the range C:D
// after a date is picked in those columns.
var ss = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
var sheet = ss.getSheetByName('tblInput');
var c = ss.getActiveCell();
if( c.getColumn() == 3 || c.getColumn() == 4)
{
sheet.getRange('C:D').activate();
sheet.getActiveRangeList().setNumberFormat('M/d/yyyy H:mm:ss');
}
}
Update: to paste that code click "Tools" --> "Script editor" --> paste code in. ... NOTE - you will have to change the text "tblInput" in the script to whatever your tab is named that you want the script to work on.