What is serial number in excel

The serial number, or serial date, is the number Excel uses to calculate dates and times entered into a worksheet. The serial number is calculated either manually or as a result of formulas involving date calculations. Excel reads the computer’s system clock to keep track of the amount of time that has elapsed since the date system’s start date.

Two Possible Date Systems

By default, versions of Excel that run on Windows store the date as a value representing the number of full days since midnight January 1, 1900, plus the number of hours, minutes, and seconds for the current day.

Versions of Excel that run on Macintosh computers default to one of the following two date systems:

• Excel for Mac versions 2019, 2016, and 2011: The default date system is the 1900 date system which guarantees date compatibility with Excel for Windows.
• Excel 2008 and older versions: The default date system begins on January 1, 1904 and is referred to as the 1904 date system.

All versions of Excel support both date systems and it’s possible to change from one system to the other.

Serial Number Examples

In the 1900 system, the serial number 1 represents January 1, 1900, 12:00:00 a.m. while the number 0 represents the fictitious date January 0, 1900.

In the 1904 system, the serial number 1 represents January 2, 1904, while the number 0 represents January 1, 1904, 12:00:00 a.m.

Times Stored as Decimals

Times in both systems are stored as decimal numbers between 0.0 and 0.99999, where:

• 0.0 is 00:00:00 (hours:minutes:seconds)
• 0.5 is 12:00:00 (12 p.m.)
• 0.99999 is 23:59:59

To show dates and times in the same cell in a worksheet, combine the integer and decimal portions of a number.

For example, in the 1900 system, 12 p.m. on January 1, 2016, is serial number 42370.5 because it is 42370 and one-half days (times are stored as fractions of a full day) after January 1, 1900. Similarly, in the 1904 system, the number 40908.5 represents 12 p.m. on January 1, 2016.

Serial Number Uses

Many projects that use Excel for data storage and calculations use dates and times in some way. For example:

• A long-term project that counts the number of days between current and past dates using the NETWORKDAYS function.
• A loan calculation that determines a future date using the EDATE function.
• Timesheets that calculate the elapsed time between start and end times, as well as hours, and overtime as necessary using formulas that add or subtract dates and times.
• Time stamping a worksheet with the current date and time with keyboard shortcuts that read the current serial number.
• Updating the displayed date and time whenever a worksheet is opened or recalculated with the NOW and TODAY functions.

Change the Default Date System

To set the date system for a workbook in Excel running on a Windows PC:

1. Open the workbook to be changed.

2. Select File. Except in Excel 2007, where you select the Office button.

3. Select Options to open the Excel Options dialog box.

4. Select Advanced in the left-hand panel of the dialog box.

5. In the When calculating this workbook section, select or clear the Use 1904 date system checkbox.

6. Select OK to close the dialog box and return to the workbook.

To set the date system for a workbook in Excel for Mac:

1. Open the workbook to be changed.

2. Select the Excel menu.

3. Select Preferences to open the Excel Preferences dialog box.

4. In the Formulas and List section, select Calculation.

5. In the When Calculating Workbooks section, select or clear the Use 1904 date system checkbox.

6. Close the Excel Preferences dialog box.

Why Two Date Systems?

PC versions of Excel (Windows and DOS operating systems) initially used the 1900 date system for the sake of compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3, the most popular spreadsheet program at the time.

The problem is that when Lotus 1-2-3 was created, the year 1900 was programmed in as a leap year when in fact it was not. As a result, additional programming steps were needed to correct the error. Current versions of Excel keep the 1900 date system for the sake of compatibility with worksheets created in previous versions of the program.

Since there was no Macintosh version of Lotus 1-2-3, initial versions of Excel for Macintosh did not need to be concerned with compatibility issues. The 1904 date system was chosen to avoid the programming problems related to the 1900 non-leap-year issue.

On the other hand, it did create a compatibility issue between worksheets created in Excel for Windows and Excel for the Mac. This is why all new versions of Excel use the 1900 date system.

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It is based on UK regional settings. If your regional settings are not compatible, this session will be harder to follow; we have already seen that excel interprets date as a number.

Entry into a Cell (Excel Numerical Order)

Once you have made an entry into a cell that entry will be interpreted according to the Excel’s internal rules. If it is interpreted as a date it will attract a date serial number. The serial number is what you will see in that cell if you strip away the date formatting.

How to Use Date & Serial Numbers in Excel

To understand how to use serial numbers, it is probably necessary to look at some examples. For example, in cell a2 type zero one forward slash zero one nine zero this date, the first of January 1900 is the date when excels data serial number kicks off each day that elapses the serial number goes up by one.

If I type in o2 forward-slash or one four slash and one nine zero, we can see the serial number has gone up to two. If I typed in a more recent date in 2019, we could see that the serial number is approaching 44,000.

Having dates set up in excel with this date serial number makes the manipulation addition, subtraction, and all sorts of other operations much easier to perform on dates for excel. To recognize a date has to be entered in a certain way.

The Intuitive One’s Will Automatically Be Interpreted

Fortunately, there is a choice of ways, and a lot of the intuitive ones will automatically be interpreted as dates; as you can see, we have entered dates with forwarding slashes and hyphens so far. We have sent a date with the month and letters providing. We have the first three letters that will work. We can enter dates without the day.

Type Number without Space(How to Put Numbering in Excel Cell)

Now type on October 19 with no spaces, and we can see that this attracts the date of the 1st of October, one of the rules that excel has when it interprets dates. If you don’t give a day, it will default to the first of that month, we can use spaces in some circumstances, and they don’t always work, so for example, if I type in a1 October 19 that works.

Use Number with Spaces

If I use numbers with spaces and type in a1 10 2019, then the data isn’t interpreted as a date; it’s just been interpreted as text in terms of months you can type in oct for October; you could type in the whole month either we’ll return to the date. If I type in the month and year, excel recognizes that as a date.

If I type in an equal sign followed by a number, a backslash, and another number, excel will still see a date here because the cell already has a custom date format. If the cell didn’t have date format and I typed in the same equals ten divided by 19, excel would recognize that as a normal number.

We can see that the time 6 am has been returned this time. If I type in 0.5 controls, enter its midday; if I type in 0.75, it’s actually 6 p.m. time effectively works, like a fraction of the serial number of one excel interprets.

As to which century we’re in, if I was to type on October 29, excel recognizes that as the first of October 2029. If I type on October 30, then excel recognizes that as 1930. So, any year 30 or above will be recognized as the last century in the year 29 or below excel will recognize as the current century. Thank you!

Wondering how to add serial number in Excel in simple ways? Read the article to know.

Serial numbers are as important in data as salt in food. You never feel their presence but their absence makes your data tasteless. It is always important to add serial numbers to your data and one can do it in many ways in Excel.

Adding serial numbers to Excel requires you to follow a few steps. Before we jump into it, let us looks at an alternative to Excel that does the same work in simpler and lesser steps.

When it comes to adding serial numbers in Lio, you really do not have to do ANYTHING. When you create a new sheet/document on the app, it automatically comes with serial numbers.

Lio makes your work very easy taking care of all the nitty-gritty of a document without you having to do much or in this case absolutely nothing.

Simple Steps To Add Serial Number In Excel

Let us learn how to add serial numbers in Excel.

Row Numbers as Serial Numbers

In a spreadsheet, you have row numbers that act as serial numbers for the data.

If you don’t want to use serial numbers for filtering or any other purpose then you can use the row headers.

Else you can follow the below-mentioned methods and add serial numbers.

Fill Series To Automatically Add Serial Numbers

Now let’s say you want to automatically number rows up to 10000 or 100000 and you want to do this in one go.

Use fill series to generate a column with serial numbers.

Here are the steps.

1. Select the cell from where you want to start your serial numbers and insert “1” in it.
2. Now, go to the home tab ➜ editing ➜ fill ➜ series.
3. In the series window, do the following.
   1. Series In = Column.
   2. Step Value = 1
   3. Stop Value = 10000 or whatever you want up to.
   4. Click OK.

It works like a serial number generator and can be used even if you want up to one million.

Add Roman Numbers as Serial Numbers

To add roman numbers as serial numbers, use the roman function with ROW.

Follow these simple steps:

• Enter the following formula in the cell from where you want to start.

=ROMAN(ROW())

• Drag down the formula up to the serial number you want.

Add a Serial Date in a Column

Let us suppose you want to enter serial-wise dates in a column, you have two different methods for this.

First, add starting date in a cell and then in the next cell downward refer to the above cell and add “1” into it.

As you know Excel stores dates as numbers and every date has a unique number.

So, when you add “1” to the date it will return the next date in the result.

The second method.

Enter the starting date into a cell and then use the fill handle to extend it to the desired date.

Just like serial numbers, you will get a sequence of dates in the column.

Use Fill Handle to Add Serial Numbers

To add serial numbers using the fill handle you can use the following steps.

1. Enter 1 in a cell and 2 in the next cell downward.
2. Select both the cells and drag them down with the fill handle (a small dark box at the right bottom of your selection) up to the cell where you want the last serial number.
3. Once you get serial numbers up to what you want, release your mouse from the selection.

This is how easy it is to add serial numbers in Excel. You can use any method to do it. Now practice these methods to remember them.

Serial Numbers in a Table

On adding a new entry, the table automatically drag-down the formula into the new cell.

Insert a formula in the first two or two entries, and you’ll get it automatically.

In the below table when you enter a new entry in a new serial number automatically generates.

Convert Serial Numbers to Serial Dates

If you already have serial numbers in your worksheet and you want to convert them to serial dates then you can simply do that with the following formula.

Let’s say you have serial numbers starting from A1, then in cell B1, add the below formula.

=DATE(2017,1,A1)

After that, drag down it up to the last serial number cell and you’ll get a sequence of dates.

Add Serial Numbers with a VBA Code

This macro code can be useful if you want to create a series of numbers without using formulas.

Sub AddSerialNumbers()

Dim i As Integer

On Error GoTo Last

i = InputBox(“Enter Value”, “Enter Serial Numbers”)

For i = 1 To i

ActiveCell.Value = i

ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Activate

Next i

Last:

Exit Sub

End Sub

Get Serial Numbers with COUNTA Function

Using COUNTA is a nice way to add serial numbers to your data. By using it you can actually count your data entries and give them a number.

Follow these simple steps.

• Enter the following formula in the cell from where you want to start your serial numbers. (For example, if your first data entry starts from F1, enter the below formula in E1).

=COUNTA(F$1:F1)

• Drag down the formula up to the serial number your want.

Generate Serial Numbers by Adding One in the Previous Number

This is my favorite method and believes me, it’s lightning-fast.

Follow these steps

1. Enter 1 in the cell from where you want to start your serial numbers.
2. In the next down cell, enter formula =G1+1 (G1 is the starting cell here).
3. Drag this formula down, up to the serial numbers you want.

Use the ROW Function to Drag Serial Numbers

ROW is an effective way to insert serial numbers in your worksheet. 

It can return the row number of a reference and when you skip referring to any cell it will return the row number of the cell in which you have entered it.

Here are the simple steps.

1. Go to cell A1, edit it, and enter the =ROW() formula in it.
2. Now drag the formula to down, up to the serial number you want.

Dynamic Serial Numbers for Filters

Let’s say you have serial numbers in a data table and when you filter some specific data from it shows you actual serials.

But, if you use a dynamic method to insert serial numbers then you can get double benefits.

First, whenever you filter data it’ll show you the serial number according to the filtered item.

Second, if you want to paste that filtered data somewhere else, you don’t have to insert them again.

For this, you can use the SUBTOTAL function and the formula will be like below.

=SUBTOTAL(3,B$2:B2)

After that, drag this formula up to the last cell of the table. Now. whenever you filter data you’ll dynamic serial number.

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