Spreadsheets: Google Sheets: date format, part 1

Self-tutoring about Google Sheets: the tutor mentions how to confirm the date format.

The following is according to my understanding.

Today I was using Google Sheets, but was surprised that its date format was mm/dd/yyyy. I went online to find out about it; it seems that in the USA, mm/dd/yyyy is default. This is Canada; not too surprisingly, it’s the same.

Yet, how could one confirm the format? For instance, if it says 5/2/2025, one can’t know at a glance.

Selecting the cell, one can copy it, go to an unused cell, then select Paste special->Format only. Next, enter =now() to get the current date. Knowing the current date, and seeing how it’s displayed, one can then realize what the date means in the “uncertain” cell.

(Note: different cells on a Google Sheet can have different date formats.)

Spreadsheets can be a lot of fun to play with:)

Source:

support.google.com: Default date format to be dd/mm/yyyy

support.google.com: how to copy formatting of a cell to paste it into other cell?