Google Sheets Location Settings
Location Settings
Google Sheets provides regional formatting settings for different languages and styles of presenting information.
Regional settings affects a number of things, like:
- Calendar date formatting
- Decimal numbers
- Default currency formatting
- Formula delimiters
Formula delimiters are the symbols used to separate arguments in a function.
The most common symbols are comma , and semicolon ;
For example, the English regional language setting uses commas:
=AND(logical_expression1, [logical_expression2, ...])
While German regional language settings uses semicolons:
=AND(logical_expression1; [logical_expression2; ...])
Note: Google sheets automatically converts between commas and semicolons in formulas so you don't have to worry about it.
Example Location Settings
Here are the date, decimal number, and formula delimiters shown with United States location settings:
Here are the date, decimal number, and formula delimiters shown with Germany location settings:
Notice that the United States location formatting uses month/day/year and the German formatting uses day.month.year for calendar dates.
The United States location formatting also uses a period (.) for the decimal symbol and the German formatting uses a comma (,).
Changing Spreadsheet Location Settings
Changing Spreadsheet Location Settings is accessed in the Spreadsheet settings part of the File menu:
Selecting this option will open a dialog box where you can choose your preferred location settings:
