How to formula excel date

Add or subtract days from a date

Suppose that a bill of yours is due on the second Friday of each month. You want to transfer funds to your checking account so that those funds arrive 15 calendar days before that date, so you’ll subtract 15 days from the due date. In the following example, you’ll see how to add and subtract dates by entering positive or negative numbers. 

1. Enter your due dates in column A.

2. Enter the number of days to add or subtract in column B. You can enter a negative number to subtract days from your start date, and a positive number to add to your date.

3. In cell C2, enter =A2+B2, and copy down as needed.

Add or subtract months from a date with the EDATE function

You can use the EDATE function to quickly add or subtract months from a date.

The EDATE function requires two arguments: the start date and the number of months that you want to add or subtract. To subtract months, enter a negative number as the second argument. For example, =EDATE(«9/15/19»,-5) returns 4/15/19.

1. For this example, you can enter your starting dates in column A.

2. Enter the number of months to add or subtract in column B. To indicate if a month should be subtracted, you can enter a minus sign (-) before the number (e.g. -1).

3. Enter =EDATE(A2,B2) in cell C2, and copy down as needed.

   Notes: 

   • Depending on the format of the cells that contain the formulas that you entered, Excel might display the results as serial numbers. For example, 8-Feb-2019 might be displayed as 43504.

   • Excel stores dates as sequential serial numbers so that they can be used in calculations. By default, January 1, 1900 is serial number 1, and January 1, 2010 is serial number 40179 because it is 40,178 days after January 1, 1900.

   • If your results appear as serial numbers, select the cells in question and continue with the following steps:

     • Press Ctrl+1 to launch the Format Cells dialog, and click the Number tab.

     • Under Category, click Date, select the date format you want, and then click OK. The value in each of the cells should appear as a date instead of a serial number.

Add or subtract years from a date

In this example, we’re adding and subtracting years from a starting date with the following formula:

=DATE(YEAR(A2)+B2,MONTH(A2),DAY(A2))

How the formula works:

• The YEAR function looks at the date in cell A2, and returns 2019. It then adds 3 years from cell B2, resulting in 2022.

• The MONTH and DAY functions only return the original values from cell A2, but the DATE function requires them.

• Finally, the DATE function then combines these three values into a date that’s 3 years in the future — 02/08/22.

Add or subtract a combination of days, months, and years to/from a date

In this example, we’re adding and subtracting years, months and days from a starting date with the following formula:

=DATE(YEAR(A2)+B2,MONTH(A2)+C2,DAY(A2)+D2)

How the formula works:

• The YEAR function looks at the date in cell A2, and returns 2019. It then adds 1 year from cell B2, resulting in 2020.

• The MONTH function returns 6, then adds 7 to it from cell C2. This gets interesting, because 6 + 7 = 13, which is 1-year and 1-month. In this case, the formula will recognize that and automatically add another year to the result, bumping it from 2020 to 2021.

• The DAY function returns 8, and adds 15 to it. This will work similarly to the MONTH portion of the formula if you go over the number of days in a given month.

• The DATE function then combines these three values into a date that is 1 year, 7 months, and 15 days in the future — 01/23/21.

Here are some ways you could use a formula or worksheet functions that work with dates to do things like, finding the impact to a project’s schedule if you add two weeks, or time needed to complete a task.

Let’s say your account has a 30-day billing cycle, and you want to have the funds in your account 15 days before the March 2013 billing date. Here’s how you would do that, using a formula or function to work with dates.

1. In cell A1, type 2/8/13.

2. In cell B1, type =A1-15.

3. In cell C1, type =A1+30.

4. In cell D1, type =C1-15.

   

Add months to a date

We’ll use the EDATE function and you’ll need the start date and the number of months you want to add. Here’s how to add 16 months to 10/24/13:

1. In cell A1, type 10/24/13.

2. In cell B1, type =EDATE(A1,16).

3. To format your results as dates, select cell B1. Click the arrow next to Number Format, > Short Date.

Subtract months from a date

We’ll use the same EDATE function to subtract months from a date.

Type a date in Cell A1 and in cell B1, type the formula =EDATE(4/15/2013,-5).

Here, we’re specifying the value of the start date entering a date enclosed in quotation marks.

You can also just refer to a cell that contains a date value or by using the formula =EDATE(A1,-5)for the same result.

More examples

To add years to or subtract years from a date

Start Date	Years added or subtracted	Formula	Result
10/24/2013	3 (add 3 years)	=DATE(YEAR(A2)+B2,MONTH(A2),DAY(A2))	10/24/2016
10/24/2013	-5 (subtract 5 years)	=DATE(YEAR(A4)+B4,MONTH(A4),DAY(A4))	10/24/2008

If you use Excel regularly, I’m sure you’ve come across dates and times in your cells. Data often has a record of when it was created or updated, so knowing how to work with this data is essential.

Here are three key skills that you’ll learn in this tutorial:

• How to format dates in Excel so that they appear in your preferred style
• Formulas to calculate the number of days, months, and years between two dates
• An Excel date formula to log today’s date, and a keyboard shortcut to add the current time

Microsoft Excel can basically do anything with data, if you just know how. This tutorial is another key step to adding skills to your Excel toolbelt. Let’s get started.

Excel Date and Time Formulas (Quick Video Tutorial)

This screencast will walk you through how to work with dates and times in Excel. I cover formatting dates to different styles, as well as Excel date formulas to calculate and work with dates. Make sure to download the free Excel workbook with exercises that I’ve attached to this tutorial.

Keep reading for a written reference guide on how to format dates and times in Excel, and work with them in your formulas. I’ll even share several tips that weren’t covered in the screencast.

Typing Dates and Times in Excel

For this part of the tutorial, use the tab titled «Typing Dates & Times» in the example workbook.

One of the keys to working with dates and times in Excel is capturing the data correctly. Here’s how to type dates and times in your Excel spreadsheets: 

1. How to Type Dates

I recommend typing dates in the same format that your system uses. For our American readers, a full date would be in the «day/month/year» format. European style dates are «month/day/year.»

When I’m typing dates, I always type in the full date with the month, day and year. If I only want to show the month and the year, I’ll simply format it that way (more on that in a minute.)

2. How to Type Times

It’s easy to type times in Excel. We can specify anything from just an hour of the day, to the exact second that something took place.

If I wanted to log the time as 4PM, I’d type «4 pm» into a cell in Excel and then press enter:

Notice once we press enter, Excel converts what we’ve typed into a hours : minutes: seconds data format. 

Here’s how to log a more specific time in your spreadsheet:

The key is to use colons to separate the section of the time data, and then add a space plus «AM» or «PM.»

3. How to Type Date-Time Together

You can also type combinations of dates and times in Excel for highly specific timestamps.

To type a date-time combination, simply use what we’ve already learned about typing dates, and typing times. 

Notice that Excel has converted the time to a 24 hour format when it’s used in conjunction with a date, by default. If you want to change the style of this date, keep reading.

Bonus: Excel Keyboard Shortcut for Current Time

One of my favorite Excel keyboard shortcuts inserts the current time into a spreadsheet. I use this formula often, when I’m noting the time I made a change to my data. Try it out:

Control + Shift + ;

Formatting Dates in Excel

For this part of the tutorial, use the tab titled «Formatting Dates & Times» in the example workbook.

What can you do when your dates are European style dates? That is, they’re in a day-month-year format, and you need to convert them to the more familiar month-day-year format?

In the screenshot above, what might surprise you is that all six of those cells contain exactly the same data — «1/22/2017.» What differs is how they’re formatted in Excel. The original data is identical, but it can be formatted to show in a variety of ways.

In most cases, it’s better to use formatting to modify the style of our dates. We don’t need to modify the data itself — just change how it’s presented.

Format Excel Cells

To change the appearance of our date and time data, make sure that you’re working on the Home tab of Excel. On the Ribbon (menu at the top of Excel), find the section labeled Number. 

There’s a small arrow in the lower right corner of the section. Click it to open the Format Cells menu.

The Format Cells menu has a variety of options for styling your dates and times. You could turn «1/22/2017» into «Sunday, January 22nd» with just formatting. Then, you could grab the format painter and change all of your cell styles.

Spend some time exploring this menu and trying out the different styles for your Excel dates and times.

Get Data From Dates and Times

Let’s say that we have a list of data that has very specific dates and times, and we want to get simpler versions of those formulas. Maybe we have a list of exact transaction dates, but we want to work with them at a higher level, grouping them by year or month.

You can get the year from a date with this Excel formula:

=YEAR(CELL)

To get just the month from a date cell, use the following Excel formula:

=MON(CELL)

Find the Difference Between Dates and Times

For this part of the tutorial, use the tab titled «DATEDIF» in the example workbook.

While formats are used to change how dates and times are presented, formulas in Excel are used to modify, calculate, or work with dates and times programatically.

The DATEDIF formula is powerful for calculating differences between days. Give the formula two dates and and it will return the number of days, months, and years between two dates. Let’s look at how to use it.

1. Days Between Dates

This Excel date formula will calculate the number of days between two dates:

=DATEDIF(A1,B1,"d")

The formula takes two cells, separated by commas, and then uses a «d» to calculate the difference in days. 

Here are some ideas for how you could use this Excel date formula to your advantage:

• Calculate the difference between today and your birthday to start a birthday countdown
• Use a DATEDIF to calculate the difference between two dates and divide your stock portfolio’s growth by the number of days to calculate the growth (or loss!) per day

2. Months Between Dates

DATEDIF also calculates the number of months between two dates. This date formula in Excel is very similar, but substitutes an «m» for «d» to calculate the difference in months:

=DATEDIF(A1,B1,"m")

However, there’s a quirk in the way Excel applies DATEDIF: it calculates whole months between dates. See the screenshot below.

To me, there are three months between January 1st and March 31st (all of January, all of February, and almost all of March.) However, because Excel uses whole months, it only considers January and February as completed, whole months, so the result is «2.» 

Here’s my preferred way to calculate the number of months between two dates. We’ll find the date difference in days, and then divide it by the average number of days in a month — 30.42 . 

=(DATEDIF(A1,B1,"d")/30.42)

Let’s apply our modified DATEDIF to two dates:

Much better. The output of 2.99 is very close to 3 full months, and this will be much more useful in future formulas.

The official Excel documentation has a complex method to calculate months between dates, but this is a simple and easy way to get it pretty close. Writing a good Excel formula is about finding the sweet spot of precision and simplicity, and this formula does both.

3. Years Between Dates

Finally, let’s calculate the number of years between two dates. The official way to calculate years between dates is with the following formula:

=DATEDIF(A1,B1,"y")

Notice that this is the same as our past DATEDIF formulas, but we’ve simply substituted the last part of the formula with «y» to calculate the number of years between two dates. Let’s see it in action:

Notice that this works like the DATEDIF for months: it counts only full years that have passed. I’d rather include partial years passing as well. Here’s a better DATEDIF for years:

=(DATEDIF(A1,B2,"d")/365)

Basically, we’re just getting the date difference in days, and then dividing it by 365 to calculate it as a year. Here’s the results:

DATEDIF is extremely powerful, but watch out for how it works: it’s going to only calculate full months or years that have passed by default. Use my modified versions for more precision in the results.

Bonus: Work Days Between Dates

The Excel date formulas covered above focus on the number of business days between dates. However, it’s sometimes helpful to just calculate the number of workdays (basically weekdays) between two dates.

In this case, we’ll use =NETWORKDAYS to calculate the number of workdays between two dates.

=NETWORKDAYS(A1,B1)

In the screenshot below, I show an example of using NETWORKDAYS. You can see the calendar showing how the formula calculated a result of «4.» 

If you have known holidays in the timeframe that you want to exclude, check out the official NETWORKDAYS documentation.

Recap and Keep Learning

Dates and times are ubiquitous to spreadsheets. Excel date formulas and formatting options are helpful. The techniques in this tutorial can take your Excel skills to the next level so that you can incorporate date-driven data seamlessly into your spreadsheets.

You’ve added one skill to your Excel toolbox — why stop here? Chain Excel formulas and skills to create powerful spreadsheets. To keep learning more about working with Excel spreadsheets, check out these other resources:

• IF Statements are logic built into your spreadsheet that show results based on conditions. You could combine an IF Statement with a date range to show data based on a date or time. Check out this tutorial to learn them.
• You could combine the VLOOKUP tutorial with date and time formulas to match values based on a date or time.
• Find and Remove Duplicates is an Excel function used in combination with date and time data, as it’s often one of the best bits of data to check for duplicates.

How do you work with calendar and time data in your Excel spreadsheets? Are there are any Excel date or time formulas that I’m missing from this tutorial that you use regularly? If so, let me know in the comments.

Date yes Add (Subtract) Days to a Date Concatenate Dates Convert Date to Number Convert Date to Text Month Name to Number Create Date Range from Dates Day Number of Year Month Name from Date First Day of Month Add (Subtract) Weeks to a Date If Functions with Dates Max Date Number of Days Between Dates Number of Days in a Month Number of Weeks Between Dates Number of Years Between Dates Split Date & Time into Separate Cells Countdown Remaining Days Insert Dates Random Date Generator Using Dynamic Ranges — Year to Date Values Add (Subtract) Years to a Date Date Formula Examples Extract Day from Date Get Day Name from Date Count Days Left in Month / Year Count Workdays Left in Month / Year Get Last Day of Month Last Business Day of Month / Year Number of Work / Business Days in Month Weekday Abbreviations Auto Populate Dates Number of Months Between Dates Quarter from a Date Years of Service Change Date Format Compare Dates Time yes Add (Subtract) Hours to Time Add (Subtract) Minutes to Time Add (Subtract) Seconds to Time Add Up time (Total Time) Time Differences Change Time Format Convert Minutes to Hours Convert Time to Decimal Convert Time to Hours Convert Time to Minutes Convert Time to Seconds Military Time Round Time to Nearest 15 Minutes Overtime Calculator Number of Hours Between Times Convert Seconds to Minutes, Hours, or Time Count Hours Worked Time Differences Time Format — Show Minutes Seconds Text yes Add Commas to Cells Get First Word from Text Capitalize First Letter Clean & Format Phone #s Remove Extra Trailing / Leading Spaces Add Spaces to Cell Assign Number Value to Text Combine Cells with Comma Combine First and Last Names Convert Text String to Date Convert Text to Number Extract Text From Cell Get Last Word Remove Unwated Characters Extract Text Before or After Character How to Split Text String by Space, Comma, & More Remove Special Characters Remove First Characters from Left Substitute Multiple Values Switch First & Last Names w/ Commas Remove Specific Text from a Cell Extract Text Between Characters (Ex. Parenthesis) Add Leading Zeros to a Number Remove Line Breaks from Text Remove all Numbers from Text Reverse Text Remove Non-Numeric Characters Remove Last Character(s) From Right Separate First and Last Names Separate Text & Numbers Round yes Round Formulas Round Price to Nearest Dollar or Cent Round to Nearest 10, 100, or 1000 Round to Nearest 5 or .5 Round Percentages Round to Significant Figures Count yes Count Blank and Non-blank Cells Count Cells Between Two Numbers Count Cells not Equal to Count if Cells are in Range Count Times Word Appears in Cell Count Words in Cell Count Specific Characters in Column Count Total Number of Characters in Column Count Cells that Equal one of two Results Count Cells that do not Contain Count Cells that Contain Specific Text Count Unique Values in Range Countif — Multiple Criteria Count Total Number of Cells in Range Count Cells with Any Text Count Total Cells in a Table Lookup yes Two Dimensional VLOOKUP VLOOKUP Simple Example Vlookup — Multiple Matches Case Sensitive Lookup Case Sensitive VLOOKUP Sum if — VLOOKUP Case Sensitive Lookup Case Sensitive VLOOKUP Find Duplicates w/ VLOOKUP or MATCH INDEX MATCH MATCH Lookup — Return Cell Address (Not Value) Lookup Last Value in Column or Row Reverse VLOOKUP (Right to Left) Risk Score Bucket with VLOOKUP Sum with a VLOOKUP Function VLOOKUP & INDIRECT VLOOKUP Concatenate VLOOKUP Contains (Partial Match) 17 Reasons Why Your XLOOKUP is Not Working Double (Nested) XLOOKUP — Dynamic Columns IFERROR (& IFNA) XLOOKUP Lookup Min / Max Value Nested VLOOKUP Top 11 Alternatives to VLOOKUP (Updated 2022!) VLOOKUP – Dynamic Column Reference VLOOKUP – Fix #N/A Error VLOOKUP – Multiple Sheets at Once VLOOKUP & HLOOKUP Combined VLOOKUP & MATCH Combined VLOOKUP Between Worksheets or Spreadsheets VLOOKUP Duplicate Values VLOOKUP Letter Grades VLOOKUP Return Multiple Columns VLOOKUP Returns 0? Return Blank Instead VLOOKUP w/o #N/A Error XLOOKUP Multiple Sheets at Once XLOOKUP Between Worksheets or Spreadsheets XLOOKUP by Date XLOOKUP Duplicate Values XLOOKUP Multiple Criteria XLOOKUP Return Multiple Columns XLOOKUP Returns 0? Return Blank Instead XLOOKUP Text XLOOKUP with IF XLOOKUP With If Statement Misc. yes Sort Multiple Columns Use Cell Value in Formula Percentage Change Between Numbers Percentage Breakdown Rank Values Add Spaces to Cell CAGR Formula Average Time Decimal Part of Number Integer Part of a Number Compare Items in a List Dealing with NA() Errors Get Worksheet Name Wildcard Characters Hyperlink to Current Folder Compound Interest Formula Percentage Increase Create Random Groups Sort with the Small and Large Functions Non-volatile Function Alternatives Decrease a Number by a Percentage Calculate Percent Variance Profit Margin Calculator Convert Column Number to Letter Get Full Address of Named Range Insert File Name Insert Path Latitute / Longitude Functions Replace Negative Values Reverse List Range Convert State Name to Abbreviation Create Dynamic Hyperlinks Custom Sort List with Formula Data Validation — Custom Formulas Dynamic Sheet Reference (INDIRECT) Reference Cell in Another Sheet or Workbook Get Cell Value by Address Get Worksheet Name Increment Cell Reference List Sheet Names List Skipped Numbers in Sequence Return Address of Max Value in Range Search by Keywords Select Every Other (or Every nth) Row Basics yes Cell Reference Basics — A1, R1C1, 3d, etc. Add Up (Sum) Entire Column or Row Into to Dynamic Array Formulas Conversions yes Convert Time Zones Convert Celsius to Fahrenheit Convert Pounds to Kilograms Convert Time to Unix Time Convert Feet to Meters Convert Centimeters to Inches Convert Kilometers to Miles Convert Inches to Feet Convert Date to Julian Format Convert Column Letter to Number Tests yes Test if a Range Contains any Text Test if any Cell in Range is Number Test if a Cell Contains a Specific Value Test if Cell Contains Any Number Test if Cell Contains Specific Number Test if Cell is Number or Text If yes Percentile If Subtotal If Sumproduct If Large If and Small If Median If Concatentate If Max If Rank If TEXTJOIN If Sum yes Sum if — Begins With / Ends With Sum if — Month or Year to Date Sum if — By Year Sum if — Blank / Non-Blank Sum if — Horizontal Sum Count / Sum If — Cell Color INDIRECT Sum Sum If — Across Multiple Sheets Sum If — By Month Sum If — Cells Not Equal To Sum If — Not Blank Sum if — Between Values Sum If — Week Number Sum Text Sum if — By Category or Group Sum if — Cell Contains Specific Text (Wildcards) Sum if — Date Rnage Sum if — Dates Equal Sum if — Day of Week Sum if — Greater Than Sum if — Less Than Average yes Average Non-Zero Values Average If — Not Blank Average — Ignore 0 Average — Ignore Errors Math yes Multiplication Table Cube Roots nth Roots Square Numbers Square Roots Calculations yes Calculate a Ratio Calculate Age KILLLLLLL Calculate Loan Payments GPA Formula Calculate VAT Tax How to Grade Formulas Find yes Find a Number in a Column / Workbook Find Most Frequent Numbers Find Smallest n Values Find nth Occurance of Character in Text Find and Extract Number from String Find Earliest or Latest Date Based on Criteria Find First Cell with Any Value Find Last Row Find Last Row with Data Find Missing Values Find Largest n Values Most Frequent Number Conditional Formatting yes Conditional Format — Dates & Times Conditional Format — Highlight Blank Cells New Functions XLOOKUP Replaces VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, and INDEX / MATCH Logical yes AND Checks whether all conditions are met. TRUE/FALSE IF If condition is met, do something, if not, do something else. IFERROR If result is an error then do something else. NOT Changes TRUE to FALSE and FALSE to TRUE. OR Checks whether any conditions are met. TRUE/FALSE XOR Checks whether one and only one condition is met. TRUE/FALSE Lookup & Reference yes FALSE The logical value: FALSE. TRUE The logical value: TRUE. ADDRESS Returns a cell address as text. AREAS Returns the number of areas in a reference. CHOOSE Chooses a value from a list based on it’s position number. COLUMN Returns the column number of a cell reference. COLUMNS Returns the number of columns in an array. HLOOKUP Lookup a value in the first row and return a value. HYPERLINK Creates a clickable link. INDEX Returns a value based on it’s column and row numbers. INDIRECT Creates a cell reference from text. LOOKUP Looks up values either horizontally or vertically. MATCH Searches for a value in a list and returns its position. OFFSET Creates a reference offset from a starting point. ROW Returns the row number of a cell reference. ROWS Returns the number of rows in an array. TRANSPOSE Flips the oriention of a range of cells. VLOOKUP Lookup a value in the first column and return a value. Date & Time yes DATE Returns a date from year, month, and day. DATEDIF Number of days, months or years between two dates. DATEVALUE Converts a date stored as text into a valid date DAY Returns the day as a number (1-31). DAYS Returns the number of days between two dates. DAYS360 Returns days between 2 dates in a 360 day year. EDATE Returns a date, n months away from a start date. EOMONTH Returns the last day of the month, n months away date. HOUR Returns the hour as a number (0-23). MINUTE Returns the minute as a number (0-59). MONTH Returns the month as a number (1-12). NETWORKDAYS Number of working days between 2 dates. NETWORKDAYS.INTL Working days between 2 dates, custom weekends. NOW Returns the current date and time. SECOND Returns the second as a number (0-59) TIME Returns the time from a hour, minute, and second. TIMEVALUE Converts a time stored as text into a valid time. TODAY Returns the current date. WEEKDAY Returns the day of the week as a number (1-7). WEEKNUM Returns the week number in a year (1-52). WORKDAY The date n working days from a date. WORKDAY.INTL The date n working days from a date, custom weekends. YEAR Returns the year. YEARFRAC Returns the fraction of a year between 2 dates. Engineering yes CONVERT Convert number from one unit to another. Financial yes FV Calculates the future value. PV Calculates the present value. NPER Calculates the total number of payment periods. PMT Calculates the payment amount. RATE Calculates the interest Rate. NPV Calculates the net present value. IRR The internal rate of return for a set of periodic CFs. XIRR The internal rate of return for a set of non-periodic CFs. PRICE Calculates the price of a bond. YIELD Calculates the bond yield. INTRATE The interest rate of a fully invested security. Information yes CELL Returns information about a cell. ERROR.TYPE Returns a value representing the cell error. ISBLANK Test if cell is blank. TRUE/FALSE ISERR Test if cell value is an error, ignores #N/A. TRUE/FALSE ISERROR Test if cell value is an error. TRUE/FALSE ISEVEN Test if cell value is even. TRUE/FALSE ISFORMULA Test if cell is a formula. TRUE/FALSE ISLOGICAL Test if cell is logical (TRUE or FALSE). TRUE/FALSE ISNA Test if cell value is #N/A. TRUE/FALSE ISNONTEXT Test if cell is not text (blank cells are not text). TRUE/FALSE ISNUMBER Test if cell is a number. TRUE/FALSE ISODD Test if cell value is odd. TRUE/FALSE ISREF Test if cell value is a reference. TRUE/FALSE ISTEXT Test if cell is text. TRUE/FALSE N Converts a value to a number. NA Returns the error: #N/A. TYPE Returns the type of value in a cell. Math yes ABS Calculates the absolute value of a number. AGGREGATE Define and perform calculations for a database or a list. CEILING Rounds a number up, to the nearest specified multiple. COS Returns the cosine of an angle. DEGREES Converts radians to degrees. DSUM Sums database records that meet certain criteria. EVEN Rounds to the nearest even integer. EXP Calculates the exponential value for a given number. FACT Returns the factorial. FLOOR Rounds a number down, to the nearest specified multiple. GCD Returns the greatest common divisor. INT Rounds a number down to the nearest integer. LCM Returns the least common multiple. LN Returns the natural logarithm of a number. LOG Returns the logarithm of a number to a specified base. LOG10 Returns the base-10 logarithm of a number. MOD Returns the remainder after dividing. MROUND Rounds a number to a specified multiple. ODD Rounds to the nearest odd integer. PI The value of PI. POWER Calculates a number raised to a power. PRODUCT Multiplies an array of numbers. QUOTIENT Returns the integer result of division. RADIANS Converts an angle into radians. RAND Calculates a random number between 0 and 1. RANDBETWEEN Calculates a random number between two numbers. ROUND Rounds a number to a specified number of digits. ROUNDDOWN Rounds a number down (towards zero). ROUNDUP Rounds a number up (away from zero). SIGN Returns the sign of a number. SIN Returns the sine of an angle. SQRT Calculates the square root of a number. SUBTOTAL Returns a summary statistic for a series of data. SUM Adds numbers together. SUMIF Sums numbers that meet a criteria. SUMIFS Sums numbers that meet multiple criteria. SUMPRODUCT Multiplies arrays of numbers and sums the resultant array. TAN Returns the tangent of an angle. TRUNC Truncates a number to a specific number of digits. Stats yes AVERAGE Averages numbers. AVERAGEA Averages numbers. Includes text & FALSE =0, TRUE =1. AVERAGEIF Averages numbers that meet a criteria. AVERAGEIFS Averages numbers that meet multiple criteria. CORREL Calculates the correlation of two series. COUNT Counts cells that contain a number. COUNTA Count cells that are non-blank. COUNTBLANK Counts cells that are blank. COUNTIF Counts cells that meet a criteria. COUNTIFS Counts cells that meet multiple criteria. FORECAST Predict future y-values from linear trend line. FREQUENCY Counts values that fall within specified ranges. GROWTH Calculates Y values based on exponential growth. INTERCEPT Calculates the Y intercept for a best-fit line. LARGE Returns the kth largest value. LINEST Returns statistics about a trendline. MAX Returns the largest number. MEDIAN Returns the median number. MIN Returns the smallest number. MODE Returns the most common number. PERCENTILE Returns the kth percentile. PERCENTILE.INC Returns the kth percentile. Where k is inclusive. PERCENTILE.EXC Returns the kth percentile. Where k is exclusive. QUARTILE Returns the specified quartile value. QUARTILE.INC Returns the specified quartile value. Inclusive. QUARTILE.EXC Returns the specified quartile value. Exclusive. RANK Rank of a number within a series. RANK.AVG Rank of a number within a series. Averages. RANK.EQ Rank of a number within a series. Top Rank. SLOPE Calculates the slope from linear regression. SMALL Returns the kth smallest value. STDEV Calculates the standard deviation. STDEV.P Calculates the SD of an entire population. STDEV.S Calculates the SD of a sample. STDEVP Calculates the SD of an entire population TREND Calculates Y values based on a trendline. Text yes CHAR Returns a character specified by a code. CLEAN Removes all non-printable characters. CODE Returns the numeric code for a character. CONCATENATE Combines text together. DOLLAR Converts a number to text in currency format. EXACT Test if cells are exactly equal. Case-sensitive. TRUE/FALSE FIND Locates position of text within a cell.Case-sensitive. LEFT Truncates text a number of characters from the left. LEN Counts number of characters in text. LOWER Converts text to lower case. MID Extracts text from the middle of a cell. PROPER Converts text to proper case. REPLACE Replaces text based on it’s location. REPT Repeats text a number of times. RIGHT Truncates text a number of characters from the right. SEARCH Locates position of text within a cell.Not Case-sensitive. SUBSTITUTE Finds and replaces text. Case-sensitive. TEXT Converts a value into text with a specific number format. TRIM Removes all extra spaces from text. UPPER Converts text to upper case. VALUE Converts a number stored as text into a number.

Sometimes excel interprets date formats as a text string. Microsoft Excel has an inbuilt date formula that any frequent user of excel is aware of. It is the primary function used to calculate dates in Excel, and it can be used to extract a date from a text string. The date function in Excel is the Date and time function that returns a serial number in sequence format representing a valid date. This function’s beauty helps assemble dates that need to change dynamically based on other values in a data sheet. The formula is:

=DATE (year, month, day) where the arguments mean;

Year- It is a required argument of the function representing the number of the year of the Date. It is always expressed in four digits to avoid confusion.

Month- this is a required argument representing the number for the month of the year to use. It can be a + or – number which means the months from January (1) to December (12)

Day-it is also a required argument in Excel representing the number for the day or Date in a particular month.

It is a straightforward and more effortless function to use. Let’s get to know how to use an Excel date formula.

How to create and use date formula

1. Open your excel worksheet click where you need the Date created.

2. from the main menu ribbon, click on the Formulas tab.

3. Under the Function Library group, click on the drop-down arrow on the option Date& Time.

4. Select Date from the given options. Excel will display a dialog box.

5. Fill in the given fields representing the date formula.

6. Click OK. Your Date will be created and inserted into the selected cell.

Method 1: using the date formula to return a serial number for a date

For example, when you want to return a serial number that corresponds to March 14, 2021, you use the formula:

=DATE (2022, 2, 25)

But in cases where you do not want to specify the values that represent the year, month, and day directly in a formula, you can use all the arguments in other Excel date functions. You can decide to combine the YEAR and TODAY function as shown below to get a serial number:

=DATE (YEAR (TODAY ()), MONTH (TODAY ()), 14). The result will display a serial number for the fourteenth day of the current month and year.

 

Method 2: Using the date function to return Date based on values in other cells

When the values meant to create a date sequence are stored in different cells, all you have to do is use the date function. For example, when you have the year in cell A3, the month in cell B3, and the day in cell C3, you can use the function;

=DATE (A3, B3, C3)

Method 3: Using the date function to subtract or add dates in excel

To add or subtract some days from a given date, you first need to convert that Date into a serial number using the excel date function. For example, in the case of adding days to your date function, here is what you do;

=DATE (2022, 2, 25) + 10

When it comes to subtracting, replace the + sign with a minus sign.

Method 4: Using the date formula to convert a string of text or number to a date

The date function is beneficial when it comes to extracting Dates from a string of texts. Such scenarios occur when excel does not recognize the format used. The date function is used in liaison with other functions as stated below;

=DATE (RIGHT, MID, LEFT)

Using Date Formula to Insert Today’s Date

You can use the TODAY function to insert today’s date in any cell in Excel. The function takes no arguments but only returns today’s date. It is represented by the syntax below;

=TODAY()

The only downside is that the TODAY function is not updated automatically. Hence, if you want to update it, just press F9 or re-enter the formula. It also collects the present date from your computer; thus, it will also return a wrong date if the computer’s date is wrong.

Using Date Formula to Insert the First Day of Any Month

You can simply use 1 in place of any day argument to insert the first date of any month. It is represented by the syntax

=DATE(yy,mm,dd),  where;

dd is the first day of the month, usually represented by 1.

For example; to get the first day of June of 2022, the formula will be:

=DATE(2022,6,1)

However, it becomes a challenge to extract the first date of the month from any date. For instance, assuming you want to extract the first date of the month from 21-February-2020 in cell B4, you can use the formula below;

=B4-DAY(B4)+1

If you want to extract the first date of a month from another date, you can place the date inside the date function as shown below:

=DATE(2020,5,15)-DAY(DATE(2020,5,15))+1

In this case, the DAY function returns the day number of any date inserted into it. For example, DAY(DATE(2022,5,15))+1 will return 15. Since Excel accepts any date as a numerical value, you can add or subtract dates from Excel with any number. Therefore, the above formula subtracts 15 days from the date 1^st September 2022 and returns the last day of the previous month, 31-August-2022.

Using Date Formula to Insert the Last Day of Any Month

If you want to insert the last date of any month, enter the last day of that month in the day argument of the DATE function.

For example, to get the last date February 2022, the formula will be:

=DATE(2022,2,28)

However, to extract the last date of the month from any given date, you need to use the EOMONTH function, whose syntax is:

=EOMONTH(start_date,months), where;

Start_date is the last date of the month from which you want to extract the date.

Months denote the number of months you want to move forward. If you want to extract the last date of the present month, it will 0. For next month will be 1, and so on.

For example, if you want to get the last date of the month from 12-February-2022, you can use the formula below:

=EOMONTH(DATE(2022,2,12),0)

To get the last date of the month 3 months later, the formula will become:

=EOMONTH(DATE(2022,2,12),3)

Using Date Formula to Convert Date to Text

You can convert a date into text using the TEXT function of Excel with the following syntax:

=TEXT(value,format_text), where;

Value is the value you want to convert to text.

Format_text. Is the format in which you want the text to appear.

If you want to extract the names of the month of any date, you can use the formula below:

=TEXT(DATE(2022,3,20),»mmmm»)

where,

“mmmm” is the format for months.

Using Date Formula to Count Total Number of Workdays Between Two Dates

You can use the NETWORKDAYS function in excel to count the total number of work days between two days. The function is represented by the following generic formula:

=NETWORKDAYS(start_date,end_date,[holidays]), where;

Start_date is the first date.

 End_date is the ending date.

 [holidays] is a list of holidays.

For example; if you have a dataset with B4:B20 as a list of the holidays, you can get the total workdays between 1-January-2021 to 31-December-2022 using the following formula:

=NETWORKDAYS(DATE(2021,1,1),DATE(2022,12,31),B4:B20)

When you write the above formula in let’s say cell E4, you will get 510 as the total number of working days. However, to count the days without weekends, you use NETWORKDAYS.INTL function.

Using Date Formula to Determine the Workday After a Specific Number of Days

You can use the WORKDAY function in place of the NETWORKDAYS function to determine a specific date after a given number of workdays from a starting date. The function is represented by the syntax:

=WORKDAY(start_date,days,[holidays]), where;

Start_date is the starting date.

Days is the total number of workdays between the two dates.

 [holidays] is a list of holidays.

Using the above example where you have B4:B20 as a list of holidays. You can find out the workday after 1000 days starting from 1-January-2021 using the following formula:

=WORKDAY(DATE(2021,1,1),1000,B4:B20)

Using The Date Function to Create A Series Of Dates

You can also use the DATE function to create a series of dates with specific days’ intervals. For example, if you want to create interview dates with intervals of 7 days, with 20^th May 2021 as the first date, you can proceed with the following steps:

1. Enter the first date in the DATE formula. Assuming you want to use cell C4 as your first case, you can write this formula:

=DATE(2022,5,20)

2. Select all the cells in column C, go to the Home ribbon, and select Fill under the Editing list of options.

3. When you click on Fill, the drop-down menu will appear. Select Series.

4. A new Series dialogue will appear. Select Column from the Series selection, Date from the Type section, and Day from the Date Unit section.

5. Enter your interval between two dates in the Step Value. In this case, you have 7 days as your interval between two dates; hence, write 7.

6. Click OK and you see a series of interview dates displayed in the cells.

You can also use a formula to generate interview dates automatically, especially if you do not want to do it manually. In this case, the formula will be:

=DATE(2022,5,SEQUENCE(17,1,20,7))

where:

17 within the SEQUENCE function is the total number of days of the series (C4:C20).

20 is the starting date of May (20 May).

7 is the dates’ intervals.

Write the formula in cell C4 and click the Enter button. After that, you only use the Autofill Handle to drag the formula down the column to generate interview dates in the remaining cells. You can alter the formula based on your dataset. Also, remember that the SEQUENCE function is only available in Office 365.

Conclusion

From the article above, we get to know how to use Excel’s Date formula and how to create a date. The Date function has many more uses that are not mentioned above. I hope you find the information helpful.

The DATE function is a financial analyst’s best pal and categorized as a Date/Time function in Excel. The criticality of the DATE function’s role is sourced from Excel’s reluctance to keep the day, month, and year as a date. Instead, Excel stores them as a serial number.

Directly handing over dates as a text string may not work well for all Excel functions. So, we will supply the dates as a serial number using the DATE function to ensure that Excel and our worksheet formulas understand the instructions properly.

Syntax

The syntax of Excel Date function is as follows:

=DATE(year, month, day)

Arguments:

year – This is a required argument that represents the year component in the date. Enter it as a 4 digit number; entering a single digit will result in Excel automatically adding 1900 to it.

For example, entering year as ’10’ will instruct the formula to interpret the year argument as ‘1910’.

Excel refers to your computer’s date system set up to interpret the Year argument. Note that entering a negative value or a value greater than 9999 will return a #NUM! error.

month – This is a required argument that represents the month component in the date. Ideally, it must be an integer from 1 to 12 (January to December).

Alternatively, if you input a number greater than 12, Excel will count that many months starting from January of the year specified in the year argument. For example, entering year as 2001 and month as 18 will return a serial number that represents June 01, 2002. Note that Excel will return the date as the first date of the interpreted month (June 01 in our case), regardless of what you input in the date argument.

On the other hand, if you enter a value less than 1, Excel will reduce that many months from January of the year specified, plus 1. For example, if you enter month as -10 and year as 2001, Excel will return a serial number that represents February 01, 2000.

day – This is a required argument that represents the day component of the date. While in an ideal case, you will enter an integer from 1 to 31 as the date argument, it can be supplied as any other positive or negative integer and Excel will apply the same principles to compute the date as it does for the month argument.

Important characteristics of the DATE function

• DATE function returns a #NUM! error when year argument is supplied with a negative number or a number greater than 9999.
• DATE function returns a #VALUE! error when any of its three arguments is supplied with a non-numeric value.
• If you see the Excel DATE function is returning a serial number like 36557 instead of a date, you will need to change the cell’s format. To do this, select the cell containing the returned date and search for the ‘Short Date’ option in the drop-down menu of cell formatting options in the ‘Number group’. These options sit on Excel’s Home Tab that appears at the top left.

Examples of the DATE function

Now let’s have a look at some of the examples of the DATE function in Excel.

Example 1 – The Plain – Vanilla DATE formula

In its purest form, this is what a DATE formula looks like:

=DATE(2001, 3, 15)

This formula returns a serial number that corresponds to the date March 15, 2001.

However, the formula can be slightly tweaked to incorporate the TODAY function encapsulated inside the YEAR function in Excel as well, like so:

=DATE(YEAR(TODAY()), 3, 15)

This formula will fetch the serial number for the current year (and the specified month and day), and return 03/15/2021.

Much the same way, you can use the TODAY function for the month argument as well, like so:

=DATE(YEAR(TODAY()), MONTH(TODAY()), 15)

This formula will fetch the serial number for the current year as well as the current month (and the specified day), and return 02/15/2021.

Example 2 – Using Cell References in DATE function Arguments

If the values you want to supply in the arguments are stored in cells on your spreadsheet, you can reference those cells, like so:

=DATE(A2, B2, C2)

With the values supplied from column A, the DATE function returns 04/30/2001.

Example 3 – Converting a number into a date using the DATE function

Let’s say you scalped the internet and landed on a large data set with dates written in a format that Excel does not understand (for example, 20052005).

In that (or similar) case, we can use the following formula to help Excel make sense of the data and interpret these numbers appropriately as dates:

=DATE(RIGHT(A2, 4), MID(A2, 3, 2), LEFT(A2, 2))

Recommended Reading:  Excel MID Function

Addition and Subtraction of Dates With DATE function

We discussed earlier how Excel store dates as serial numbers. There is of course a logical reason why Excel does this – it enables us to add or subtract a specified number of days from a given date.

To illustrate how this works, we plugged the following formula into our sheet:

=DATE(2001, 3, 15) + 20

When you add a +20 at the end of this DATE formula, Excel will return the date 20 days after 03/15/2001, which is 04/04/2001.

Alternatively, to subtract a certain number of days, all you need to do is use a minus sign, like so:

=DATE(2001, 3, 15) - 10

But, let’s say you want to compute the number of days between today and another date. In that case, we will subtract both dates, like so:

=TODAY() - DATE(2021, 2, 20)

The formula will return the number of days between today (whenever that may be) and March 15, 2001.

Changing DATE format With DATE function

So, you added some neat formulas to your Excel sheet and everything worked out fine. But, let’s say you want to use different separators for the days (for example, ‘/’ instead of ‘-‘), or you want to use the name of the month instead of a number (for example, January instead of 01).

We discussed earlier that Excel will refer to your computer’s date format and uses the same format for displaying dates in a worksheet.

To change this format, you do not need a formula. Instead, you need to tweak some settings.

Select the cell that contains the output from the DATE function. Right-click, and choose «Format Cells». You should see the following dialogue box:

Choose the format of your preference and click «OK».

Conditional Formatting with DATE function

Let’s say you have a large data set and you want to separate the data points occurring before and after a certain date.

To do this, we will use Excel’s conditional formatting rules and instruct Excel to shade these 2 cells with 2 separate colors so it becomes easy for us to discern.

We have our dates listed out in column A, and we want to shade the dates occurring before 12/31/2012 in green, and the ones occurring after in red.

To illustrate the entire process, we will use the following formula as a starting point:

=$A2 < DATE(2012, 12, 31)

Notice how this formula returns a Boolean value but does not shade any cells.

Let’s move a step further and apply a shade.

Select the range A2:A8 and navigate to the «Conditional Formatting» drop-down menu in the «Styles» group under the «Home» tab, and select «Manage Rules»:

On the «Conditional Formatting Rules Manager» click the «New Rule» button.

After clicking on the «New Rule» you will see a list of Rule Types. Scroll over to «Use a formula to determine which cells to format» and choosing it will reveal a formula box. In this box, plug in the formula we used to fetch Boolean values and select the desired formatting, like so:

Click «OK» and you should return to the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager dialog box.

To shade the dates occurring after 12/21/2012 red, we will add another rule following the same process. The only difference, obviously, will be in the formula. Instead of using a ‘<‘, we will use a ‘>=’, like so: =$A2>=DATE(2012,12,31)

This is what the Rules Manager box should look like at this point. Make sure that the «Applies to» box contains the appropriate range.

As your final step, click on «Apply» and watch your date list switch colors.

I hope the guide gives you a confidence boost the next time you use DATE formulas in your worksheet. Remember, practice is key. By the time you are done practicing, we will have another Excel function for you to explore.

The DATE function creates a date using individual year, month, and day arguments. Each argument is provided as a number, and the result is a serial number that represents a valid Excel date. Apply a date number format to display the output from the DATE function as a date.

In general, the DATE function is the safest way to create a date in an Excel formula, because year, month, and day values are numeric and unambiguous, in contrast to text representations of dates which can be misinterpreted. 

Note: to move an existing date forward or backward in time, see the EDATE and EOMONTH.

Example #1 — hard-coded numbers

For example, you can use the DATE function to create the dates January 1, 1999, and June 1, 2010 with the following syntax:

=DATE(1999,1,1) // returns Jan 1, 1999
=DATE(2010,6,1) // returns Jun 1, 2010

Example #2 — cell reference

The DATE function is useful for assembling dates that need to change dynamically based on other inputs in a worksheet. For example, with 2018 in cell A1, the formula below returns the date April 15, 2018:

=DATE(A1,4,15) // Apr 15, 2018

If A1 is then changed to 2019, the DATE function will return a date for April 15, 2019.

Example #3 — with SUMIFS, COUNTIFS

The DATE function can be used to supply dates as inputs to other functions like SUMIFS or COUNTIFS, since you can easily assemble a date using year, month, and day values that come from a cell reference or formula result. For example, to count dates greater than January 1, 2019 in a worksheet where A1, B1, and C1 contain year, month, and day values (respectively), you can use a formula like this:

=COUNTIF(range,">"&DATE(A1,B1,C1))

The result of COUNTIF will update dynamically when A1, B1, or C1 are changed.

Example #4 — first day of current year

To return the first day of the current year, you can use the DATE function like this:

=DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),1,1) // first of year

This is an example of nesting. The TODAY function returns the current date to the YEAR function. The YEAR function extracts the year and returns the result to the DATE function as the year argument. The month and day arguments are hard-coded as 1. The result is the first day of the current year, a date like «January 1, 2021».

Note: the DATE function actually returns a serial number and not a formatted date. In Excel’s date system, dates are serial numbers. January 1, 1900 is number 1 and later dates are larger numbers. To display date values in a human-readable date format, apply the number format of your choice.

Notes

• The DATE function returns a serial number that corresponds to an Excel date.
• Excel dates begin in the year 1900. If year is between zero and 1900, Excel will add 1900.
• The DATE function accepts numeric input only and will return #VALUE if given text.