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ISDATE

Quirk found

Category: Info · Last tested 2026-09-01

Real compatibility results for the ISDATE function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, measured against Google’s published documentation. Excel does not document ISDATE, so this page makes no claim about Excel. Syntax and links to that documentation are below.

Support matrix

EngineDocumentedLive-testedVerdict
Excel (desktop)No n/a (not an Excel function) n/a
Excel for the web— Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01) Unsupported (not recognized)
Google SheetsYes Yes (Drive import, 2026-09-01) Quirk found
LibreOffice CalcNo Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-09-01) Unsupported (not recognized)

LibreOffice version history

We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when ISDATE’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.

LibreOffice versionVerdictTested
24.2.0.3 Unsupported (not recognized) 2026-09-01
24.8.7.2 Unsupported (not recognized) 2026-09-01
25.2.0.3 Unsupported (not recognized) 2026-09-01
25.8.7.3 Unsupported (not recognized) 2026-09-01

Why isn't ISDATE working in LibreOffice?

LibreOffice Calc does not implement ISDATE as of 25.8.7.3 — in our executed tests it returns a #NAME? (unrecognized function) error. This is not a typo or a settings problem, and saving the file as .xlsx does not change it: the function simply isn’t available yet. Watch the LibreOffice version support page — we re-run every test on each new release, so it will flip to Supported here as soon as it lands.

Why isn’t ISDATE working in Google Sheets?

ISDATE runs in Google Sheets, but our executed cases show it does not match Excel’s documented behavior on every input (the failing cases are listed on this page). If a formula that behaves one way in Excel gives you a different answer in Sheets, compare your usage against those cases before assuming your data is wrong.

Discovered quirks

Executed test cases

Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)

These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.

FormulaDescriptionResultExpectedVerdict
=ISDATE("July 20 1969") Published row 1: a full date written as text #NAME? True
Provenance

This IS one of Google's own published results: the page carries a real Formula/Result table in the article body (not an embedded live sheet), and this row is quoted from it verbatim. The page's Examples table has four rows and this file asserts all four. Note that they are NOT the same strings as the page's separate 'Sample formulas' line (ISDATE("7/20/1969"), ISDATE("July 20"), ISDATE(A1)), which prints no results at all -- the two sets must not be conflated. Google's ISDATE page, read live on 2026-08-31 at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9061381. BATCH PROVENANCE (batch H, the first Sheets/LibreOffice-only batch). Every function in this batch has x == false in docs/data/compat.json: it is a Google Sheets function that Microsoft does not document at all, so this corpus makes NO claim about it in that engine and nothing here is measured against that vendor's documentation. The authority is Google's own support.google.com function page, cited by full URL and by the date it was read -- Google publishes no version number for these pages, so a bare URL dates nothing. WHAT GOOGLE ACTUALLY PRINTS, WHICH IS LESS THAN IT LOOKS: most of these pages carry a 'Sample Usage' block of FORMULAS WITH NO RESULTS. Where a value below is Google's own published output the note says so; where it is derived from the page's stated semantics the note says that instead, and says from which sentence. No value in this batch was taken from a search snippet, a blog or a mirror. LIBREOFFICE: probed on all four pinned builds (24.2.0.3, 24.8.7.2, 25.2.0.3, 25.8.7.3) in five storage spellings -- plain, _xlfn., COM.MICROSOFT., ORG.OPENOFFICE. and _xlfn.ORG.OPENOFFICE. -- and #NAME? under every one of them, so the expected values below describe Google Sheets and the LibreOffice column records absence.

Mismatch
=ISDATE("1969-20-07") Published row 2: a hyphenated string whose middle field is 20 #NAME? True
Provenance

This IS one of Google's own published results: the page carries a real Formula/Result table in the article body (not an embedded live sheet), and this row is quoted from it verbatim. THIS IS THE ROW WORTH WATCHING, AND IT IS GOOGLE'S OWN. Read as ISO year-month-day, "1969-20-07" has month 20 and cannot be a date; the page nonetheless prints TRUE, which is only consistent with a year-day-month reading. The page says nothing about locale anywhere, and the corpus asserts the published value rather than the value the reading suggests. If the executed engine returns FALSE, that divergence is the finding and the page is what will be wrong. Google's ISDATE page, read live on 2026-08-31 at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9061381.

Mismatch
=ISDATE("July") Published row 3: a month name with no day or year #NAME? False
Provenance

This IS one of Google's own published results: the page carries a real Formula/Result table in the article body (not an embedded live sheet), and this row is quoted from it verbatim. Google's ISDATE page, read live on 2026-08-31 at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9061381.

Mismatch
=ISDATE("Feb 30") Published row 4: a calendar date that does not exist #NAME? False
Provenance

This IS one of Google's own published results: the page carries a real Formula/Result table in the article body (not an embedded live sheet), and this row is quoted from it verbatim. The pair with row 3 shows the page treating an INCOMPLETE date and an IMPOSSIBLE date the same way. The page's only Note is unrelated to either: "Ensure your date has quotation marks around it, unless it's a reference to a cell." Google's ISDATE page, read live on 2026-08-31 at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9061381.

Mismatch

Google Sheets (executed 2026-09-01 via Drive import)

Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.

FormulaDescriptionResultExpectedVerdict
=ISDATE("July 20 1969") Published row 1: a full date written as text True True
Provenance

This IS one of Google's own published results: the page carries a real Formula/Result table in the article body (not an embedded live sheet), and this row is quoted from it verbatim. The page's Examples table has four rows and this file asserts all four. Note that they are NOT the same strings as the page's separate 'Sample formulas' line (ISDATE("7/20/1969"), ISDATE("July 20"), ISDATE(A1)), which prints no results at all -- the two sets must not be conflated. Google's ISDATE page, read live on 2026-08-31 at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9061381. BATCH PROVENANCE (batch H, the first Sheets/LibreOffice-only batch). Every function in this batch has x == false in docs/data/compat.json: it is a Google Sheets function that Microsoft does not document at all, so this corpus makes NO claim about it in that engine and nothing here is measured against that vendor's documentation. The authority is Google's own support.google.com function page, cited by full URL and by the date it was read -- Google publishes no version number for these pages, so a bare URL dates nothing. WHAT GOOGLE ACTUALLY PRINTS, WHICH IS LESS THAN IT LOOKS: most of these pages carry a 'Sample Usage' block of FORMULAS WITH NO RESULTS. Where a value below is Google's own published output the note says so; where it is derived from the page's stated semantics the note says that instead, and says from which sentence. No value in this batch was taken from a search snippet, a blog or a mirror. LIBREOFFICE: probed on all four pinned builds (24.2.0.3, 24.8.7.2, 25.2.0.3, 25.8.7.3) in five storage spellings -- plain, _xlfn., COM.MICROSOFT., ORG.OPENOFFICE. and _xlfn.ORG.OPENOFFICE. -- and #NAME? under every one of them, so the expected values below describe Google Sheets and the LibreOffice column records absence.

Matched
=ISDATE("1969-20-07") Published row 2: a hyphenated string whose middle field is 20 False True
Provenance

This IS one of Google's own published results: the page carries a real Formula/Result table in the article body (not an embedded live sheet), and this row is quoted from it verbatim. THIS IS THE ROW WORTH WATCHING, AND IT IS GOOGLE'S OWN. Read as ISO year-month-day, "1969-20-07" has month 20 and cannot be a date; the page nonetheless prints TRUE, which is only consistent with a year-day-month reading. The page says nothing about locale anywhere, and the corpus asserts the published value rather than the value the reading suggests. If the executed engine returns FALSE, that divergence is the finding and the page is what will be wrong. Google's ISDATE page, read live on 2026-08-31 at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9061381.

Mismatch
=ISDATE("July") Published row 3: a month name with no day or year False False
Provenance

This IS one of Google's own published results: the page carries a real Formula/Result table in the article body (not an embedded live sheet), and this row is quoted from it verbatim. Google's ISDATE page, read live on 2026-08-31 at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9061381.

Matched
=ISDATE("Feb 30") Published row 4: a calendar date that does not exist False False
Provenance

This IS one of Google's own published results: the page carries a real Formula/Result table in the article body (not an embedded live sheet), and this row is quoted from it verbatim. The pair with row 3 shows the page treating an INCOMPLETE date and an IMPOSSIBLE date the same way. The page's only Note is unrelated to either: "Ensure your date has quotation marks around it, unless it's a reference to a cell." Google's ISDATE page, read live on 2026-08-31 at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9061381.

Matched

LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-09-01)

FormulaDescriptionResultExpectedVerdict
=ISDATE("July 20 1969") Published row 1: a full date written as text #NAME? True
Provenance

This IS one of Google's own published results: the page carries a real Formula/Result table in the article body (not an embedded live sheet), and this row is quoted from it verbatim. The page's Examples table has four rows and this file asserts all four. Note that they are NOT the same strings as the page's separate 'Sample formulas' line (ISDATE("7/20/1969"), ISDATE("July 20"), ISDATE(A1)), which prints no results at all -- the two sets must not be conflated. Google's ISDATE page, read live on 2026-08-31 at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9061381. BATCH PROVENANCE (batch H, the first Sheets/LibreOffice-only batch). Every function in this batch has x == false in docs/data/compat.json: it is a Google Sheets function that Microsoft does not document at all, so this corpus makes NO claim about it in that engine and nothing here is measured against that vendor's documentation. The authority is Google's own support.google.com function page, cited by full URL and by the date it was read -- Google publishes no version number for these pages, so a bare URL dates nothing. WHAT GOOGLE ACTUALLY PRINTS, WHICH IS LESS THAN IT LOOKS: most of these pages carry a 'Sample Usage' block of FORMULAS WITH NO RESULTS. Where a value below is Google's own published output the note says so; where it is derived from the page's stated semantics the note says that instead, and says from which sentence. No value in this batch was taken from a search snippet, a blog or a mirror. LIBREOFFICE: probed on all four pinned builds (24.2.0.3, 24.8.7.2, 25.2.0.3, 25.8.7.3) in five storage spellings -- plain, _xlfn., COM.MICROSOFT., ORG.OPENOFFICE. and _xlfn.ORG.OPENOFFICE. -- and #NAME? under every one of them, so the expected values below describe Google Sheets and the LibreOffice column records absence.

Mismatch
=ISDATE("1969-20-07") Published row 2: a hyphenated string whose middle field is 20 #NAME? True
Provenance

This IS one of Google's own published results: the page carries a real Formula/Result table in the article body (not an embedded live sheet), and this row is quoted from it verbatim. THIS IS THE ROW WORTH WATCHING, AND IT IS GOOGLE'S OWN. Read as ISO year-month-day, "1969-20-07" has month 20 and cannot be a date; the page nonetheless prints TRUE, which is only consistent with a year-day-month reading. The page says nothing about locale anywhere, and the corpus asserts the published value rather than the value the reading suggests. If the executed engine returns FALSE, that divergence is the finding and the page is what will be wrong. Google's ISDATE page, read live on 2026-08-31 at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9061381.

Mismatch
=ISDATE("July") Published row 3: a month name with no day or year #NAME? False
Provenance

This IS one of Google's own published results: the page carries a real Formula/Result table in the article body (not an embedded live sheet), and this row is quoted from it verbatim. Google's ISDATE page, read live on 2026-08-31 at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9061381.

Mismatch
=ISDATE("Feb 30") Published row 4: a calendar date that does not exist #NAME? False
Provenance

This IS one of Google's own published results: the page carries a real Formula/Result table in the article body (not an embedded live sheet), and this row is quoted from it verbatim. The pair with row 3 shows the page treating an INCOMPLETE date and an IMPOSSIBLE date the same way. The page's only Note is unrelated to either: "Ensure your date has quotation marks around it, unless it's a reference to a cell." Google's ISDATE page, read live on 2026-08-31 at https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9061381.

Mismatch

Docs & syntax

Where ISDATE behaves differently