by When it comes to calculating dates in Excel, DATE is the most essential function to understand. As you probably know, Excel does not keep the year, month and day for a date, nor does it explicitly store weekday information in a cell. Instead, Microsoft Excel stores dates as serial numbers and this is the main source of confusion.
Not all Excel date functions can recognize dates entered as text values, therefore it's not recommended to supply dates directly in calculations. Instead, you should use the DATE function to get a serial number representing the date, the number that Excel understands and can operate on.
Excel DATE function
The Excel DATE function returns the serial number that represents a certain date. It has the following arguments:
Where:
Year - represents the year of the date.
Month - an integer representing the month of the year, from 1 (January) to 12 (December).
Day - an integer corresponding to the day of the month, from 1 to 31.
The DATE function is available in all versions of Excel 365 - Excel 2007.
DATE function - tips and notes
The DATE syntax looks crystal clear and straightforward on the surface. In practice, there may be some unobvious pitfalls that the below tips will help you avoid.
Year
Excel interprets the year argument according to the date system set up on your computer. By default, Microsoft Excel for Windows uses the 1900 system where January 1, 1900 is represented by the serial number 1. For more details, please see Excel date format.
- If the year argument is between 1900 and 9999 inclusive, Excel uses exactly the value you supplied to create a date. For example, DATE(2015, 12, 31) returns December 31, 2015.
- If the year argument is between 0 and 1899 inclusive, Excel adds the specified number to 1900. For example, DATE(100, 12, 31) returns December 31, 2000 (1900 + 100).
- If the year argument is less than 0 or greater than 9999, a DATE formula will return the #NUM! error.
Tip. To avoid confusion, always supply four-digit years. For example, if you input "01" or "1" in the year argument, your DATE formula will return the year of 1901.
Month
- If the month argument is greater than 12, Excel adds that number to the first month in the specified year. For example, DATE(2015, 15, 5) returns the serial number representing March 1, 2016 (January 5, 2015 plus 15 months).
- If the month argument is less than 1 (zero or negative value), Excel subtracts the magnitude of that number of months, plus 1, from the first month in the specified year. For example, DATE(2015, -5, 1) returns the serial number representing July 1, 2014 (January 1, 2015 minus 6 months).
Day
As well as month, the day argument can be supplied as a positive and negative number, and Excel calculates its value based on the same principles as described above.
Tip. At first sight, supplying negative values in the month or day argument of the Excel DATE function may seem absurd, but in practice it may turn out quite useful, for example in the complex formula that converts a week number to a date.
Excel DATE formula examples
Below you will find a few examples of using DATE formulas in Excel beginning with the simplest ones.
Example 1. DATE formula to return a serial number for a date
This is the most obvious use of the DATE function in Excel.
For example, to return a serial number corresponding to 20-May-2015, use this formula:
=DATE(2015, 5, 20)
Instead of specifying the values representing the year, month and day directly in a formula, you can have some or all arguments driven by of other Excel date functions. For instance, combine the YEAR and TODAY to get a serial number for the first day of the current year.
=DATE(YEAR(TODAY()), 1, 1)
And this formula outputs a serial number for the first day of the current month in the current year:
=DATE(YEAR(TODAY()), MONTH(TODAY(), 1)
Tip. To display a date rather than a serial number, apply the desired Date format to the formula cell.
Example 2. How to return a date based on values in other cells
The DATE function is very helpful for calculating dates where the year, month, and day values are stored in other cells.
For example, to find the serial number for the date, taking the values in cells A2, A3 and A4 as the year, month and day arguments, respectively, the formula is:
=DATE(A2, A3, A4)
Example 3. DATE formula to convert a string or number to a date
Another scenario when the Excel DATE function proves useful is when the dates are stored in the format that Microsoft Excel does not recognize, for instance DDMMYYYY. In this case, you can use DATE in liaison with other functions to convert a date stored as a numeric string or number into a date:
=DATE(RIGHT(A2,4), MID(A2,3,2), LEFT(A2,2))
Example 4. Adding and subtracting dates in Excel
As already mentioned, Microsoft Excel stores dates as serial numbers and operates on those numbers in formulas and calculations. That is why when you want to add or subtract some days to/from a given date, you need to convert that date to a serial number first by using the Excel DATE function. For example:
- Adding days to a date:
=DATE(2015, 5, 20) + 15The formula adds 15 days to May 20, 2015 and returns June 4, 2015. - Subtracting days from a date:
=DATE(2015, 5, 20) - 15The result of the above formula is May 5, 2015, which is May 20, 2015 minus 15 days. - To subtract a date from today's date:
=TODAY()-DATE(2015,5,20)The formula calculates how many days are between the current date and some other date that you specify.
If you are adding or subtracting two dates that are stored in some cells, then the formula is as simple as =A1+B1 or A1-B1, respectively.
For more information, please see:
Advanced Excel DATE formulas
And here are a few more examples where Excel DATE is used in combination with other functions in more complex formulas:
Using Excel DATE formulas in conditional formatting
In case you want not only to calculate but also highlight dates in your Excel worksheets, then create conditional formatting rules based on DATE formulas.
Supposing you have a list of dates in column A and you want to shade dates that occurred earlier than 1-May-2015 in orange and those that occur after 31-May-2015 in green.
The DATE formulas you want are as follows:
Orange: =$A2<DATE(2015, 5, 1) - highlights dates less than 1-May-2015
Green: =$A2>DATE(2015, 5, 31) - highlights dates greater than 31-May-2015
For the detailed steps and more formula examples, please see How to conditionally format dates in Excel.
How to make date formulas in Excel with Date & Time Wizard
Though DATE is the main function to work with dates in Excel, a handful of other functions are available to tackle more specific tasks. You can find the links to in-depth tutorials at the end of this article.
Meanwhile, I'd like to present you our Date & Time Wizard - a quick and easy way to calculate dates in Excel. The beauty of this tool is that outputs the results as formulas, not values. Thus you have a kind of 'two birds, one stone' opportunity - get the result faster and learn Excel date functions along the way :)
The wizard can perform the following calculations:
- Add years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds to the specified date.
- Subtract years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds from the specified date.
- Calculate the difference between two dates.
- Get age from the birthdate.
For example, here's how you can add 4 different units in cells B3:E3 to the date in A4. The formula in B4 is built in real-time as you change the conditions:
If you are curious to explore other capabilities of the wizard, feel free to download an evaluation version of the Ultimate Suite below which includes this as well as 60 more time saving add-ins for Excel.
I thank you for reading and hope to see you on our blog next week!
Available downloads
Ultimate Suite 14-day fully-functional version (.exe file)
680 comments
need a formula where we have a due date and mail out date, the due date will determine if it's past due or current and the mail out date will determine if paid, under a status column, cannot figure out how to have 2 IF functions that helps with the 2 logical test that can give us these 3 statuses, paid, past due, current.
Hello team,
Need help... How to calculate the collection date when 57 days credit term starts from the end of each transaction week?
Invoice date is April 1, 2020
Hello!
I’m sorry but your task is not entirely clear to me. What is "transaction week"? We are not experts in finance and credit. Therefore, we can not understand your terms.
For me to be able to help you better, please describe your task in more detail. Please let me know in more detail what you were trying to find, what formula you used and what problem or error occurred. It’ll help me understand it better and find a solution for you. Thank you.
I want to create remarks that denote that a particular activity is due in certain days (based on the last date when it was performed, mentioned in the sheet) or a particular activity has passed *this* number of days past its due date (also mentioned in the sheet)
The sheet has current date, activity performed date and due date in columns. Kindly help
Hello Swaleha!
If I understand your task correctly, the following formula should work for you:
=IF(B1="","Performed in "& (C1-A1) & " day", (A1-B1) & " days ago")
If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.
I'm trying to look at a priority level = A (+2 days), B (+5 days), C (+10 days) or D (+20 days) (in column E) then add the corresponding number days (+# days to column K) from the date in column C. Example in column C I have "01 Jan 20" and in column E I have "B" therefore I want column K to automatic insert "06 Jan 20" which is the +5 days due to priority level "B" selected. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Hello Ken,
Please try the following formula:
=C1+CHOOSE(MATCH(E1,{"A","B","C","D"},0),2,5,10,20)
I hope it’ll be helpful.
How can I from say cell N11 Up until I11 count all the days that art between as a total amount of days that have passed so far does my question make sense?
I have a start date and a end date but as the days in between get added in as time goes on they need to be subtracted from the amount of days in my days *total column*.
*Start* *End* *Total Days for project*
03/03/2020 dates dates dates 05/05/2020 Days passed/left?
Hello
I am trying to create a table whereby I set one anticipated start date and this can then autofill other cells by putting in how many weeks after (eg. start date is 05.03.20 so if I put a 2 in the weeks column the date would show up as 19.03.20). Does anyone know if this is possible/how to do it?
Many thanks
Ella.
I WOULD LIKE TO DRAFT AGEING REPORT USING EXCEL.
WE PROVIDE LOANS, I WOULD MY EXCEL TO HIGHLIGHT A DAY BEFORE THE DUE DATE
Hi
i am trying to get a yes or no answer for:
Employee's hire date is greater than 3-31-2019, yes or no
but an employee hired on 1-2-1990 is showing as "no"
please help
I have a question.
Im new to excel and my boss wants me to calculate Day,month and year from a different cell.
and it's about retiredate. I have to calculate from their birthdate to the next 60 years. I mean I can use this formulas [=date(year(cell)+70+if(month(cell)>=10,1,0),9,30)] but just in case their birthdate is in the same cell. but from the different cell I can't. I really don't know what to do with this. I really appreciate if someone can help me.
***sorry for my english***
Hi Can you help.
I am trying to track absence and using =DATEDIF(D62,$N$2,"d") to give me the total of days someone if off sick, however I need it to stop counting when they return to work. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Steve
I am trying to create a schedule in table format where the date format is ex (Sunday, Dec 02)and want it to autofill across the top. I also need this to be able search by day or date for an app.
I am trying to create a formula to find the departure date from a loading date...for eg if loading date is 2nd December and departure for that specific country is Tuesday/ Friday then the departure date should be displayed as 3rd December. if loading date is 4th December then departure date should be 6th December Friday. I have 1 column with the country which is vlook'd up from another sheet in the workbook along with loading dates
I wanted to create an Excel formula that produced an 18th birthday based on a date. Through trial and error, I came up with this one.
Cell A1 = 4/26/2008
Cell B1: =DATE(YEAR(A1)+DATEDIF(A1,TODAY(),"y")+(18-ROUNDDOWN(((TODAY()-A1)/365),0)),MONTH(A1),DAY(A1))
Result = 4/26/2026
separate 07/04/1959 to 07, 04, 1959 per column
How would I separate birthday column of 07/06/48 to a separate column of month, day, year?
Thank you.
Hi
I need a formula to calculate employees leave days "to date"
Thank you for the info!
Hello I am unable to change date format from MM/DD/YYYY to DD/MM/YYYY please help me
My completion date should not chnage from previous date to current date. i want a fromula to track how many docs an executive has completed yday, today and so on..I have used now fromula as well but it chnages the date to present.
Hi,
I am trying to create a spreadsheet that alerts me to the approaching time limit of some applications.
I need a formula that will use the "valid date" in column A and "decision date" in column E to tell me via colour code:
* Red - 0-7 days from valid date to decision date
* Amber - 8-24 days from valid date to decision date
* Green - 25-100 days from valid date to decision date
I've tried a few variations of things with no luck and it's driving me insane!!
Thanks in advance