Hi there!
When I build a query using the visual Editor, it automatically formats the date — for example, 2025-05-01 is displayed as “May 2025”.
However, when I run the same query from the SQL Editor, the date is not formatted automatically, and I don’t see any option to apply formatting.
The output timestamp/date from both queries are exactly the same.
Is there a way to apply date formatting when using the SQL Editor?
Thanks!
Hello there,
Can you check the Date style setting in Admin Settings > Localization? It should match what you see in the trend chart, and let you change it from there
Hi Marcos,
The localization is set to Brazil settings. However, the issue is that when we build the query using the visual editor, it automatically uses a short date format like “May 2025.”
But when I build the same query using the SQL editor, it displays the date in the default format (which matches the localization settings): dd/mm/yyyy.
It would be great to have more control over the trend chart—for example, to format the dates, adjust the font size of comparisons, and so on.
thank.
Oh, I see! Trend charts currently do not support customizing date formats (see related issue, you can upvote it).
When using the Query Builder, Metabase understands that you're binning by month, so it gives it a nicer format. However, in the SQL question, Metabase only sees the resulting DATE_TRUNC date (it doesn't understand that the SQL is "binning by month" because it doesn't parse it), so it uses the default date format.
Some workarounds to try:
