If before date excel

Which orders are overdue? Which stock items were scheduled to be replenished before today? Which assignments are being submitted late?  What items have reached maturity or expiry?

Dealing with dates may be a regular part of your Excel work and keeping an eye on overdue items is crucial in any case. This system of overdue requires you to inspect the dates occurring before today’s date. But in a sea of too much information, who has that good an eye for things?

Thankfully, Excel does. For starters, if these dates of interest are systematic and linear in your data (in columns or rows), you can sort them chronologically, the oldest dates first. Even so, the overdue dates require some sort of distinction, reddish or otherwise.

This tutorial will teach you how to check other dates against today’s date using a generic formula, the TODAY function, and Conditional Formatting. Along with that, learn a few Excel tricks that can help you with your quest.

Let’s get checking!

Using Formulas

This is the main way to check if a date is before today because even with Conditional Formatting, it is the formula that will do the work. The core concept of the formula is to check whether the date in question is «less than» today’s date or not. That’s probably already giving you an idea of how to go about this.

Let’s use an example to better explain the works. In our example case, the current date is the 31^st of October 2022. The date has been entered in cell E2. We have a list of customer orders with the order date, delivery days, and estimated delivery date mentioned. As the deliveries are completed, the orders are cleared from this list.

The objective is to find which orders have deliveries overdue so that they can be tended to quickly. Now is where the formulas come in and do their job.

Using Generic Formula

Checking if a date falls before today can be done without delving into anything technical. You can use a simple formula where you check if the date is less than the date today. And… job done! Let’s put the no-nonsense formula to the test. Use a formula like the one below to check if today’s date comes after a date:

=E5<$F$2

With this formula, we are checking if the date in E5 i.e. 31-Oct-22 occurs before the date in F2 which is 31-Oct-22. The «before» bit of the formula is checked with the less than sign, meaning is E5’s date less than F2’s date? Since both the dates are the same and one is not less than the other, the formula returns FALSE.

In the next instance, we will be checking E6 against F2. F2 remains constant against the dates in column E because it has been locked as an absolute reference with $ signs. 30-Oct-22 is lesser than the 31^st so we get a TRUE this time. This means that the date in E6 is before the current date entered in F2. So on, and so forth, we get the F column filled with this formula:

Nice going. But we need better going. Wouldn’t it be better to have something a little more prominent than TRUE and FALSE stacked up? It would indeed. Let’s see what we can do about that.

Using TODAY Function

We can check a date against the current date with help from the TODAY function. The TODAY function returns the current date in the default date format. We can have a little demonstration before we proceed to the actual objective.

In our case example, we will enter today’s date using the TODAY function instead of manually punching it in. We have entered this date with the TODAY function without any arguments and we get 31-Oct-22 as the result:

In this circumstance, you can still resort to the formula used above i.e. =E5<$F$2

Now if we were to use the formula plainly as we did earlier, we’d use the logical test as:

=E5<TODAY()

But that would give us TRUEs and FALSEs again. So let’s have the formula that we will be working with to check the current date against the dates in column E, to see if they are before or after the 31^st. Using the TODAY and IF functions, we get:

=IF(E5<TODAY(),"Late","")

The logical test that we were going to use on its own has been nested in the IF function. The IF function will check if E5’s date is less than (and therefore earlier than) the date today (supplied by the TODAY function). We know the answer to that is FALSE.

Upon returning TRUE, the IF function is set to return the text string «Late» (as has been done in the second instance). For FALSE the result is to be an empty text string (denoted by a pair of double quotes «») as returned in F5:

If you’ve figured out the plus point of integrating the TODAY function, 10 points to you. The plus is that TODAY will have dynamic results; updating column F as the date changes. Taking the example of our case, the next day, on the 1^st of November, the results will be «Late» for F5 – F6 and F10 – 14.

That is because all these dates will fall before the 1^st of November. To keep the results on your worksheet static, skip using the TODAY function and stick to a generic formula like in the previous section.

Working with Missing Dates

Incorporating other factors into the mix, suppose we have some estimated delivery dates missing as the delivery dates of some orders are unknown. With missing dates, either of the formulas from above would equate to TRUE, as a missing date can’t be said to not be before the current date.

This would be a little misleading, and the fix for this mix is the ISBLANK function. The formula below will help you to check if a date comes before the current date while dealing with missing dates:

=IF(ISBLANK(E5),"",IF(E5<TODAY(),"Late","---"))

Now we have geared up the formula to return an empty text string «» upon finding a blank cell in column E, indicating a missing date. If not, meaning if a date is found, then the date should be tested for falling before today’s date (as provided by the TODAY function). If yes, then we get «Late», or else we get «—».

Using Conditional Formatting

The second major way is using Conditional Formatting to check if the current date is before or after another date. Conditional Formatting is a very visual method of highlighting data that meets a certain condition in Excel. The A Date Occurring rule in Conditional Formatting provides a few earlier date options:

Using these preset options can highlight yesterday’s date or dates having occurred in the last 7 days, last week, or last month.

We will aim to highlight those dates in Excel that precede today’s date by a Conditional Formatting rule. Go through the steps below to see the rule we’re applying through Conditional Formatting to check if a date is before the current date:

• Select the cells with the dates that you want to check against today’s date.
• Select the Conditional Formatting icon from the Styles group in the Home

• From the menu, go to Highlight Cells Rules > Less Than.

• In the opened dialog box, type the following formula:

=TODAY()

• Use the next bar to set the format for the highlighted cells.

• The background of this rule is what we have seen in the earlier sections; checking the date to be less than the date today. From the selected cells, Conditional Formatting will highlight all the cells meeting this condition in Light Red Fill with Dark Red Text.
• Click on the OK button in the dialog box.

The dates falling before the 31^st of October will be highlighted:

Let’s tweak the data a bit so that along with these highlighted 3 dates, we’ll have the date 28^th October which will be the date furthest behind the 31^st in the dataset. Leaving the previous Conditional Formatting rule as it is, 28^th will then also be highlighted in light red. If we add another rule similar to the previous one, the only change is in the TODAY function as follows:

=TODAY()-2

This will highlight the dates less than 2 days from today and we’ve chosen red fill so it further stands out:

All days that are two or more days before today will be highlighted in red fill. However, make sure to keep the second rule in top preference otherwise the dates will only fall under the first rule. The preference can be changed in the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager.

This was how to use the TODAY function to highlight dates more than x days before the current date. E.g. highlighting the dates more than 2 weeks before the current date can be done with the Less Than rule with the following input formula:

=TODAY()-14

With the Between Highlight Cells rule, Conditional Formatting can highlight the dates occurring, let’s say, between 2 weeks to a week before today like so:

Conditional Formatting provides a very easily deducible visual, right? The longer dues in a darker shade. You can leave that all to Excel and set this up in a matter of seconds with Conditional Formatting‘s Color Scales option. To apply it, go to the Home tab > Conditional Formatting icon > Color Scales and choose a Color Scale. We’ve chosen a 2-Color Scale.

The Color Scale will be applied immediately highlighting the earliest date in red and shading the dates as per the Color Scale tones to the latest date in white.

While this is cool, it’s missing the TODAY component. We have a little trick to make this Color Scale relevant to the date today so head to the Rule Manager and edit the rule involving this Color Scale.

On the Maximum side that is represented by the white color, change the Type to Number. In the Value field, enter the TODAY function as:

=TODAY()

The purpose of these changes is to limit the Color Scale to just the current date instead of the latest date in the selected cells. Apply the changes with the OK command.

See the change in the Conditional Formatting? Now only the dates before the current date are prominent while the current date and beyond are white.

And here’s where we check out. That was our tutorial with some easy tricks on checking if a date is before today’s date in Excel where the TODAY function can play a very convenient role. While you’re getting your way around with dates, we’ll work on more Excel matter for your checking.

The IF function is one of the most useful Excel functions. It is used to test a condition and return one value if the condition is TRUE and another if it is FALSE.

One of the most common applications of the IF function involves the comparison of values.

These values can be numbers, text, or even dates. However, using the IF statement with date values is not as intuitive as it may seem.

In this tutorial, I will demonstrate some ways in which you can use the IF function with date values.

Syntax and Usage of the IF Function in Excel

The syntax for the IF function is as follows:

IF(logical_test, [value_if_true], [value_if_false])

Here,

• logical_test is the condition or criteria that you want the IF function to test. The result of this parameter is either TRUE or FALSE
• value_if_true is the value that you want the IF function to return if the logical_test evaluates to TRUE
• value_if_false is the value that you want the IF function to return if the logical_test evaluates to FALSE

For example, say you want to write a statement that will return the value “yes” if the value in cell reference A2 is equal to 10, and “no” if it’s anything but 10.

You can then use the following IF function for this scenario:

=IF(A2=10,"yes","no")

Comparing Dates in Excel (Using Operators)

Unlike numbers and strings, comparison operators, when used with dates, have a slightly different meaning.

Here are some of the comparison operators that you can use when comparing dates, along with what they mean:

It may look like IF formulas for dates are the same as IF functions for numeric or text values, since they use the same comparison operators.

However, it’s not as simple as that.

Unfortunately, unlike other Excel functions, the IF function cannot recognize dates.

It interprets them as regular text values.

So you cannot use a logical test such as “>05/07/2021” in your IF function, as it will simply see the value “05/07/2021” as text.

Here are a few ways in which you can incorporate date values into your IF function’s logical_test parameter.

Using the IF Function with DATEVALUE Function

If you want to use a date in your IF function’s logical test, you can wrap the date in the DATEVALUE function.

This function converts a date in text format to a serial number that Excel can recognize as a date.

If you put a date within quotes, it is essentially a text or string value.

When you pass this as a parameter to the DATEVALUE function, it takes a look at the text inside the double quotes, identifies it as a date and then converts it to an actual Excel date value.

Let us say you have a date in cell A2, and you want cell B2 to display the value “done” if the date comes before or on the same date as “05/07/2021” and display “not done” otherwise.

You can use the IF function along with DATEVALUE in cell B2 as follows:

=IF(A2<DATEVALUE("05/07/2021"),"done","not done")

Here’s a screenshot to illustrate the effect of the above formula:

Using the IF Function with the TODAY Function

If you want to compare a date with the current date, you can use the IF function with the TODAY function in the logical test.

Let’s say you have a date in cell A2 and you want cell B2 to display the value “done” if it is a date before today’s date.

If not, you want let’s say you want to display the value “not done”. You can use the IF function along with the TODAY function in cell B2 as follows:

=IF(A2<TODAY(),"done","not done")

Here’s a screenshot to illustrate the effect of the above formula (assuming the current date is 05/08/2021):

Using the IF Function with Future or Past Dates

An interesting thing about dates in Excel is that you can perform addition and subtraction operations with them too.

This is because dates are basically stored in Excel as serial numbers, starting from the date Jan 1, 1900.

Each day after that is represented by one whole number.

So, the serial number 2 corresponds to Jan 2, 1900, and so on.

This means that adding n number of days to a date is equivalent to adding the value n to the serial number that the date represents.

If TODAY() is 05/07/2021, then TODAY()+5 is five days after today, or 05/12/2021. Similarly, TODAY()-3 is three days before today or 05/04/2021.

Let’s say you have a date in cell A2 and you want cell B2 to mark it as “within range” if it is within 15 days from the current date.

If not, you want to show “out of range”. You can use the IF function along with the TODAY function in cell B2 as follows:

=IF(A2<TODAY()+15,"within range","out of range")

Here’s a screenshot to illustrate the effect of the above formula (assuming the current date is 05/08/2021):

Points to Remember

Having discussed different ways to use dates with the IF function, here are some important points to remember:

1. Instead of hardcoding the dates into the IF function’s logical test parameter, you can store the date in a separate cell and refer to it with a cell reference. For example, instead of typing =IF(A2<”05/07/2021”,”done”,”not done”), you can store the date 05/07/2021 in a cell, say B2 and type the formula: =IF(A2<B2,”done”,”not done”).

1. Alternatively, you can use the DATEVALUE function as explained in the first part of this tutorial.

1. Another neat technique that you can use is to simply add a zero to the date (which has been enclosed in double quotes). So you can type: =IF(A2<”05/07/2021”+0,”done”,”not done”). This will make Excel take the date inside double quotes as a serial number, and use it in the logical test without having its value changed.

In this tutorial, I showed you some great techniques to use the IF function with dates. I hope the tips covered here were useful for you.

Other articles you may also like:

• Multiple If Statements in Excel (Nested Ifs, AND/OR) with Examples
• How to use Excel If Statement with Multiple Conditions Range [AND/OR]
• How to Convert Month Number to Month Name in Excel
• Why are Dates Shown as Hashtags in Excel? Easy Fix!
• How to Convert Serial Numbers to Date in Excel
• How to Get the First Day Of The Month In Excel?

Highlight Dates Before Today or Within a Date Range in Excel Using Conditional Formatting

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated October 17, 2022

Applies to: Microsoft^® Excel^® 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021 and 365 (Windows)

You can use conditional formatting in Excel to highlight cells containing dates before today or within a date range before the current date. In a worksheet, you can use conditional formatting to highlight selected cells by filling them with a color based on rules or conditions. This type of formatting is helpful if you want to highlight past due dates such as invoices that are 30, 60 or 90 days overdue.

When you apply conditional formatting, you can apply more than one rule to a range of cells.

In this article, we’ll review 3 ways to highlight dates before today using conditional formatting:

1. Use built-in conditional formatting
2. Create a conditional formatting rule based on cell contents
3. Create a conditional formatting rule using a formula

Recommended article: How to Delete Blank Rows in Excel (5 Easy Ways with Shortcuts)

Do you want to learn more about Excel? Check out our virtual classroom or in-person Excel courses >

Dates must be entered or returned as valid dates in Excel in order to apply conditional formatting. Dates are affected by your regional settings and date / time settings in your Control Panel on your device.

For example, if your regional settings are set to U.S., dates are typically entered as mm/dd/yy (month / day / year) unless the date / time settings have been changed. For example, November 14, 2021 may be entered at 11/14/21 if your device’s regional settings are set to U.S (you can also enter dates with dashes such as mm-dd-yy). To test your device to see how dates are recognized, press Ctrl + ; (semi-colon) in a cell in an Excel worksheet to enter the current date in the cell. Dates can then be formatted to appear in a different ways.

The current date can also be entered in a cell using the TODAY function such as =TODAY() or the NOW function such as =NOW(). The NOW function enters the current date and time whereas the TODAY function only enters the current date. They are dynamic functions so will always display the current date.

Highlight dates before today using built-in conditional formatting

To highlight dates before today using a built-in conditional formatting rule:

1. Select the cells containing dates to which you want to apply conditional formatting.
2. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
3. Click Conditional Formatting in the Styles group. A menu appears to the right.
4. Select Highlight Cell Rules. A menu appears.
5. From the drop-down menu, choose Dates Occurring. A dialog box appears.
6. From the first drop-down menu, select an option such as Yesterday, In the last 7 days, Last Week, or Last Month.
7. In the second drop-down menu beside With, select Custom Format. A dialog box appears.
8. Click the Fill tab and then click the desired fill color. You can also click the Font tab and select a font color or another format such as bold.
9. Click OK twice.

The Date Occurring dialog box appears as follows with In the last 7 days selected (this option would include the current date):

In the Format Cells dialog box, you can select a fill as the conditional format:

Highlight dates before today by creating a conditional formatting rule based on cell contents

You can also apply your own formatting rules based on cell contents. This method gives you more control over how cells are formatted and allows you to do things you wouldn’t be able to do with the built-in formats.

To highlight dates before today by creating a conditional formatting rule based on cell contents:

1. Select the cells containing dates to which you want to apply conditional formatting.
2. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
3. Click Conditional Formatting in the Styles group. A drop-down menu appears.
4. Select New Rule. A dialog box appears.
5. Select Format only cells that contain.
6. Below Format only cells with, ensure Cell Value is selected.
7. From the second drop-down menu, select less than.
8. In the text box, enter =TODAY().
9. Click Format. A dialog box appears.
10. Click the Fill tab and then click the desired fill color. You can also click the Font tab and select a font color or another format such as bold.
11. Click OK twice.

In the Edit Formatting Rule dialog box below, we entered a rule to highlight the selected cells if the cell value is less than =TODAY():

To highlight cells containing a range of dates between today and a date in the past (not including today):

1. Select the cells containing dates to which you want to apply conditional formatting.
2. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
3. Click Conditional Formatting in the Styles group. A drop-down menu appears.
4. Select New Rule from the drop-down menu.
5. Select Format only cells that contain.
6. Below Format only cells with, ensure Cell Value is selected.
7. From the second drop-down menu, select Between.
8. In the first text box, enter =TODAY()-1.
9. In the second text box, enter another date or formula. For example, if you are looking for dates in the last 90 days before the current date, enter =TODAY()-90. For 30 days overdue, enter =TODAY()-30.
10. Click Format. A dialog box appears.
11. Click the Fill tab and then click the desired fill color. You can also click the Font tab and select a font color or another format such as bold.
12. Click OK twice.

In the Edit Formatting Rule dialog box below, we entered a rule to highlight the selected cells if the cell value is between =TODAY()-1 and =TODAY()-90 (within 90 days before the current date):

Highlight dates before today by creating a conditional formatting rule using a formula

You can use a variety of formulas in conditional formatting to change cell formats based on a formula.

When you are writing formulas in conditional formatting rules, context is very important. Write the formula as if you are in the active cell (often the first cell) and Excel, by default, uses relative referencing to copy the formula to the other cells.

To highlight dates before today by creating a conditional formatting rule using a formula:

1. Select the cells in a column containing dates to which you want to apply conditional formatting.
2. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
3. Click Conditional Formatting in the Styles group. A drop-down menu appears.
4. Select New Rule from the drop-down menu.
5. Click Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
6. Enter the formula (starting with =) in the formula box (the formula references the active cell which is usually the first cell and the conditional formatting tool will adjust it for the other cells if relative referencing is used). For example, enter =A2<TODAY() if A2 is the first in the range of selected cells containing a date.
7. Click Format. A dialog box appears.
8. Click the Fill tab and then click the desired fill color. You can also click the Font tab and select a font color or another format such as bold.
9. Click OK twice.

In the Edit Formatting Rule dialog box below, we entered a formula rule of =A2<TODAY() to highlight the selected cells if the cell value is before today:

You can also use absolute and mixed referencing in conditional formatting rules.

If you want to highlight selected cells in a row with conditional formatting, select the range of cells across multiple columns and use a mixed reference with a dollar sign ($) in front of the column reference in the formula. For example, enter =$A2<TODAY() to highlight selected cells in a row before today.

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