Google Sheets – How to Subtract X Days from a Defined Date

dateformulasgoogle sheets

I'm trying to figure out "how to" subtract days from a date in Google Sheets.

EXAMPLE

Col A (original date)    Col D (date - 5 days)
    08-08-16                  08-03-16

A1 will display the original "date" and D1 will have a "formula" that displays A1-5days.

Ideas?

Best Answer

Internally, dates are represented as numbers on the scale 1 = one day. (Technically, it is the number of days since December 30, 1899, but one usually doesn't need to know this). So, moving 5 days back into the past means subtracting 5: 

D1 = A1 - 5

If you wanted to move 3 hours forward, that would be D1 = A1 + 3/24.

Normally, the sheet will recognize that the input of a formula is a date, and automatically format the output as a date. If this does not happen, apply date formatting to the D cell.

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