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Hi Reader,

Happy New Year! 🎉

Welcome to the Google Sheets Tips newsletter #371, your first Monday morning espresso of 2026, in spreadsheet form!

I usually write a year-in-review post over the holidays but this holiday was so busy that I didn't get round to it. It's a valuable exercise to reflect on the year gone and think about what I want to achieve this year. So I'm still planning to write one and will share it when I do.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and feel recharged as we head into 2026. I had a lovely break, spending time with family and friends. We stayed local for Christmas and then headed up to western New York for a (very) snowy New Year adventure.

My boys were not happy at the idea of going back to school this morning and I think we can probably all relate ;)

I wish you all the best for this coming year.

➜ News

I.
Data Tables are a new feature in NotebookLM that help you organize data into a structured format for export to Google Sheets.

​Read more here >>​

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➜ Sheets Tip #371: Welcome to 2026!

It's always strange the first few times you write 2026. Like "I can't quite believe it's a new year again" sort of strange.

Last year, we looked at the number 2025 and how we could create it with formulas in Google Sheets.

Let's see what formulas and facts we can derive starting with the number 2026.

Start with the number 2026 in cell A1 and then try these different formulas:

1) The ROMAN formula converts to Roman numerals: MMXXVI

2) This SPLIT formula splits 2026 into separate cells 2, 0, 2, and 6:

=SPLIT(REGEXREPLACE(TEXT(A1,"0"),"","✂️"),"✂️")

3) This function sums the digits:

=SUM(SPLIT(REGEXREPLACE(TEXT(A1,"0"),"","✂️"),"✂️"))

4) This BASE function converts the number to binary 11111101010:

5) And this rather more complicated REDUCE formula converts this binary number back to the integer 2026 (assumes the binary number is in cell B1):

6) Finally, here's an esoteric BAHTTEXT formula that prints the number 2026 as words in our Sheet:

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Have a great week!

Cheers,
Ben

P.S. New Year Resolutions​