The date range field supports adding times, but there’s an inconsistency when it comes to sorting: Use the Google Calendar databases as an example, if one database has times enabled and another doesn’t, they don’t sort together correctly in the same column.
I am pretty sure date ranges without times are still being allocated a default (hidden) time value in the backend and it’s 0:01.
It would be helpful if we can sort Date Start and Date End for all databases with a date range. The default time that’s applied to date-only values in the back end should be read as a datetime not as a date. This would allow sorting and filtering on the “All Databases” level
There is no ‘default time applied to date-only values in the back end’. Dates are stored as dates. However, if dates are being compared with date times, or if they are used in a formula with a data time result type, then type casting will occur.
In such a situation, a date will be converted to a date time with a time value of midnight UTC.
NOTE:
Date ranges are stored internally with an extra day at the end, and date time ranges are stored internally with an extra second at the end. See here for why.
So if I have a data range of 01/01/2025 → 02/01/2025 (on the UI) it will be stored internally as 01/01/2025 → 03/01/2025. If I were to make a formula field which was simply this date range, but type cast it as a date time, it would show as 01/01/2025 02:00 → 03/02/2025 01:59 on the UI for me (in the CEST timezone).
The 01/01/2025 part has been converted to 01/01/2025 00:00:00 UTC
The 02/01/2025 part has been converted to 03/01/2025 00:00:00 UTC
This results in a date time range stored internally as 01/01/2025 00:00:00 UTC → 03/01/2025 00:00:00 UTC. When the UI receives this date time range, it is presented as
01/01/2025 02:00 → 03/01/2025 01:59
since the UI shows 1 second less than the internal value (and the seconds part has been truncated).
It may sound confusing, but these are the technical foundations, and perhaps explains why you’re not seeing the sorting order you expect.
