Date-based formatting in Google Sheets - Interactive Code Practice

Practice - 5 Tasks

1fill in blank

easy

Complete the formula to highlight cells with dates equal to today.

Google Sheets

=A1=[1]()

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

ANOW

BTODAY

CDATE

DTIME

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using NOW() includes time and may cause mismatches.

Using DATE() requires parameters and won't return current date automatically.

The TODAY() function returns the current date without time, perfect for date comparisons.

2fill in blank

medium

Complete the formula to highlight dates before today.

Google Sheets

=A1 [1] TODAY()

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A>

B=

C<

D>=

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using > instead of < reverses the logic.

Using = only matches exact dates.

The less than operator < checks if the date in A1 is before today.

3fill in blank

hard

Fix the error in the formula to highlight dates within the last 7 days.

Google Sheets

=AND(A1>=TODAY()-[1], A1<=TODAY())

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A1

B6

C8

D7

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using 6 excludes one day from the range.

Using 8 includes an extra day.

Subtracting 7 from TODAY() checks dates from 7 days ago up to today.

4fill in blank

hard

Fill both blanks to highlight dates in the current month.

Google Sheets

=AND(MONTH(A1)=[1], YEAR(A1)=[2])

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

AMONTH(TODAY())

BDAY(TODAY())

CYEAR(TODAY())

DMONTH(A1)

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using DAY(TODAY()) instead of MONTH(TODAY()).

Comparing to fixed numbers instead of dynamic functions.

Compare the month and year of A1 to the current month and year using MONTH(TODAY()) and YEAR(TODAY()).

5fill in blank

hard

Fill all three blanks to highlight dates that are weekends.

Google Sheets

=OR(WEEKDAY(A1)=[1], WEEKDAY(A1)=[2], WEEKDAY(A1)=[3])

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A1

B7

C6

D5

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Including 6 (Friday) as a weekend day.

Using numbers outside 1-7 range.

In Google Sheets, WEEKDAY() returns 1 for Sunday and 7 for Saturday by default. Including 6 is incorrect for weekend days.

The correct weekend days are Sunday (1) and Saturday (7). The third blank is a distractor to check understanding.