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Date Functions in Tableau 16

The document discusses date functions in Tableau. It begins by explaining that date functions allow users to manipulate date values by making changes, searching for specific dates, or creating new dates. It then provides examples of 16 common date functions in Tableau like DATEADD, DATEDIFF, DATENAME, and TODAY. These functions allow users to add or subtract dates, retrieve date parts, compare dates, and perform other calculations. The document concludes by describing how to create and use date functions in Tableau through its calculation editor.

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Giri Raj
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153 views8 pages

Date Functions in Tableau 16

The document discusses date functions in Tableau. It begins by explaining that date functions allow users to manipulate date values by making changes, searching for specific dates, or creating new dates. It then provides examples of 16 common date functions in Tableau like DATEADD, DATEDIFF, DATENAME, and TODAY. These functions allow users to add or subtract dates, retrieve date parts, compare dates, and perform other calculations. The document concludes by describing how to create and use date functions in Tableau through its calculation editor.

Uploaded by

Giri Raj
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Date Functions in Tableau – Time

to manipulate date values


Let us enhance our technical knowledge in Tableau and learn about some
important date functions used in Tableau. In this article, we will learn about
date functions in Tableau with their use in Tableau. Here, we will begin with
understanding what are date functions, their types and how to create them.

What are Date Functions in Tableau?


As the name suggests, the date functions are used to work with the date
records in a data source. Using the date functions in Tableau, we can
manipulate date values by making changes in the old ones, searching specific
date values or creating new ones.
Use of Date Functions in Tableau
With the help of date functions in Tableau, we can apply logical as well as
arithmetic operations on date values as per our analysis requirements.

Date fields are very important in any data set and in the analysis as without
date values like a year, month, week, quarter, etc, we will not have time
references in our data.

Thus, with the help of date functions in Tableau, we can create date fields and
perform complex operations on the date fields.

In the next section, we will see different types of date functions and learn their
use.

Interpretation of Date Fields in Tableau


Whenever a new data set is uploaded, Tableau follows a set of procedures to
identify a field as a date field.
1. The first step is to check the data values for any date values in it. Date values
are generally distinguished from the other values by their special data type.
Tableau identifies and verifies the date values or date records.
2. If the data field does not have proper data typing, we can manually change
the data type of a date containing fields. Similar changes are also done to the
fields containing a lot of null values.
3. In the above step, what we did was to convert or date values to a string type
so that we can later use them to translate into date format through the Date
Parse method.
The parsing method converts a simple string into a date format by assigning
date-specific attributes to different parts of the date value.

4. After converting a simple value into date format, Tableau saves those values


in a newly created date field using the date functions.
Types of Date Functions in Tableau

Let us learn about the different date functions, their expressions, and use in
Tableau.

1. DATEADD
This function returns a date which is a result of adding a certain interval into
the original date.

Syntax:
1. DATEADD(date_part, interval, date)
Example:
Suppose we want to add 6 months to the present date.

DATEADD(‘month’, 6, #13-02-2020#)

2. DATEDIFF
This function returns a difference between two dates.

Syntax:
1. DATEDIFF(date_part, date1, date2, [start_of_week])

Example:
To see the difference of weeks between two dates.

DATEDIFF(‘week’, #2020-02-22#, #2020-02-24#, ‘monday’)= 1

3. DATENAME
It returns the name of the part that you specify in the date_part parameter.
Syntax:
1. DATENAME(date_part, date, [start_of_week])

Example:
DATENAME(‘year’, #20-04-15#) = “2020”

DATENAME(‘month’, #2020-02-15#) = “February”

4. DATEPART
It returns the value entered in the date_part parameter as an integer value.

Syntax:
1. DATEPART(date_part, date, [start_of_week])

Example:
DATEPART(‘year’, #2020-04-15#) = 2020

DATEPART(‘month’, #2020-04-15#) = 4

5. DATETRUNC
This function performs a truncate operation on the date values. That is, it
truncates a date to a specified accuracy or condition given in the expression
and returns a new date.

Syntax:
1. DATETRUNC(date_part, date, [start_of_week])

Example:
Truncating a date at a month level gives the first day of that month. Or
truncating a date at a quarter level will give the first day of that quarter.

DATETRUNC(‘quarter’, #2020-08-15#) = 2020-07-01 12:00:00 AM

DATETRUNC(‘month’, #2020-04-25#) = 2020-04-01 12:00:00 AM

6. DAY
This function returns the day of a date as an integer.

Syntax:
1. DAY(date)

Example:
DAY(#2020-02-22#) = 22

7. ISDATE
It is a condition function that returns True if a given value or string is a date.

Syntax:
1. ISDATE(string)

Example:
ISDATE(“February 15, 2020”) = true

8. MAKEDATE
This function creates a date as per the specified year, month and day in the
expression.

Syntax:
1. MAKEDATE(year, month, day)

Example:
MAKEDATE(2020, 2, 15) = #February 15, 2020#

9. MAKEDATETIME
This function creates a date and time value from the given input parameters.
The date part in the input can be of date, string or datetime type but the time
part must only be of datetime type.

Syntax:
1. MAKEDATETIME(date, time)

Example:
MAKEDATETIME(“1997-12-30”, #07:59:00#) = #12/30/1997 7:59:00 AM#

MAKEDATETIME([Date], [Time]) = #1/1/2020 6:00:00 AM#

10. MAKETIME
This function creates a date value from given parameters like an hour, minute
and second.

Syntax:
1. MAKETIME(hour, minute, second)

Example:
MAKETIME(10, 55, 40) = #10:55:40#

11. MAX
This function returns the bigger date when two dates are compared. Please
note that the two dates must be of the same type.

Syntax:
1. MAX(expression) or MAX(expr1, expr2)

Example:
MAX(#2020-01-01# ,#2020-03-01#) = 2020-03-01

MAX([ShipDate1], [ShipDate2])
12. MIN
This function returns the smaller date of the two dates compared. This is the
opposite of the MAX function.

Syntax:
1. MIN(expression) or MIN(expr1, expr2)

Example:
MIN(#2020-01-01# ,#2020-03-01#) = 2020-01-01

MIN([ShipDate1], [ShipDate2])

13. MONTH
This function returns the month of the given date in the form of an integer.

Syntax:
1. MONTH(date)

Example:
MONTH(#2020-02-15#) = 2

14. NOW
This function returns the current date and time.

Syntax:
1. NOW( )

Example:
NOW( ) = 2020-02-15 2:10:21 PM

15. TODAY
This function returns the current date.

Syntax:
1. TODAY()

Example:
TODAY( ) = 2020-02-15
16. YEAR
This function returns the year of a given date in the form of an integer.

Syntax:
1. YEAR (date)

Example:
YEAR(#2020-02-15#) = 2020

How to Create and Use Date Functions in Tableau


Now that you know all the different types of date functions, learn from this
section how to create date functions or expressions in Tableau. Follow the
steps given below.

 To begin with, connect to a data source in Tableau.


 Go to an active worksheet.
 Add your fields in Rows and Columns as per your requirement for
analysis.
 Now, select Analysis and then Create Calculated Field option.
 A calculation editor will open where you have to enter a name for your
calculated field, for example, OrderDate.
 Also, here is where you enter the date function formula. For instance,
DATETRUNC(‘quarter’, [OrderDate]).
 Click OK once you have entered your date expression or date function.
 The new calculated date field will appear with its name (given by you
like we gave “OrderDate”) in the Dimensions section of Data pane.
 You use the new date field in your charts by dragging and dropping it on
the Rows or Columns section.

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