google sheetsworksheet-function
I haven´t found much searching on the net.
The case:
One cell is filled out in date-format by the TODAY() function. How can I update another cell with the actual day as string? I´ve seen older examples by using CHOOSE func, or the the WEEKDAY() func formatted. Nothing seems to work for me.
There isn't a format function in Google spreadsheets. You have to use the TEXT(number, format) function.
I have to admit I always assume it will be format, but Excel uses Text so Google has to use it also.
The easiest way to do this is with a regexreplace function, it effectively also preserves strings as strings by default, and its quite dynamic, making it one of my favorite functions:
=IFERROR(REGEXEXTRACT(A4,"("®EXREPLACE(A4,", ","), (")&")"),A4)
To Explain:
I start by building by own regex dynamically by placing the , (comma with the space) between to opposite facing parentheses, which partially create capture groups around the pieces of text I do want.
which starts to create a string that looks like this:
Thursday 8-9), (Thursday 9-10), (Thursday 7-8
To complete the capture groups, I start and end my string with the opening and closing parentheses like this:
="("®EXREPLACE(A4,", ","), (")&")")
which effectively would create a variable like this:
(Thursday 8-9), (Thursday 9-10), (Thursday 7-8)
By default a capture group automatically pushes each group to it's own cell, and since im not telling it what has to be in the parentheses, only that it should use the comma and space to know where the groups end and begin, i top it off with a regex extract function.
For the cases where there are no commas to replace, it would throw an error, so the easiest way is to wrap the whole thing with iferror so that it simply returns the original cell in those cases:
Best Answer
where A1 is the cell with the date.