Using DATE function in Excel - formula examples to calculate dates

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:

DATE(year, month, day)

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)
Using the DATE function in Excel to get a serial number representing a date

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)
Excel DATE formula to return a date based on values in other cells

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))
DATE formula to convert a string to a date

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.

DATE formulas to add and subtract dates in Excel

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
Using Excel DATE formulas in conditional formatting

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:
Subtract dates in Excel using the Date & Time Wizard

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)

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680 comments

  1. Hello
    Sir,
    Please tell us formula date to 09/04/2020 dd/mm/yyyy

  2. Buna ziua

    Tot incerc sa aranjez un tabel in ordinea cronologica a datei calendaristice si nu reusesc.
    Cum pot sa rezolv aceasta problema?
    Am incercat multe variante si degeaba.
    Cu multumiri

  3. I want to update 1 tracker, how can come todays date, if i'll open file before 12.00 AM, if any reason, i'll not able to open file before 12.00 AM, I want to previous date.

  4. Hi, I need to define/include any real month, as to the ( from last day of previous month to one day before the last date of current month). Can i see a calculation for this?

    Ex: Real month - (November 1st to 30th November)
    My definition November - (31st October to 29th November)

    Wayne C

  5. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you ... that is exactly what I wanted it to do

  6. Good day
    I need a formula to help me with Invoicing payment dates. So if I receive an invoice on the 20th or before that, the invoice needs to be paid end of the following month (eg Invoice date - 20-Nov-20 and payment will then be 31-Dec-20), but if an invoice is received after the 20th of a month, it needs to be paid 2 months later (eg Invoice date - 22-Nov-20 and payment will then be 31-Jan-21)

    Thank you in advance

  7. I want to create cells that adds a range of days to dates with parameters: not to be less than the first day of the next month and not to exceed the last day of the next month. I enter a date in one cell, next cell adds 28 days but at least first day of next month, third cell adds 35 days not to exceed the last day of the next month.

    • Hello!
      Formulas that calculate the first and last day of the next month

      =EDATE(D3,1)-DAY(D3)+1

      =EOMONTH(D3,1)

      I hope it’ll be helpful.

  8. Hi
    I need to set a formula in excel so when one cell is updated with a month and year (e.g. Jan 20) the cell below it automatically updates to 3 months later (e.g. April 20). Does anyone know how to do this please?

  9. please i need your help
    i have excell work sheet from 1st september to 30th with for formua , now i want creat new sheet for 1st october such that the 30th september minus (-) 1st octomber gives zero

    • Hello!
      I’m sorry but your task is not entirely clear to me. For me to be able to help you better, please describe your task in more detail. Please specify what you were trying to find, what formula you used and what problem or error occurred. Perhaps you just need to subtract dates and subtract 1 more day?

  10. i have this formula =IF(O5"",O5-B5,Q2-B5) and when i drag it down it will be like this =IF(O6"",O6-B6,Q3-B6) how can keep the Q2 when dragging

  11. I need formula to calculate the aging for case created from the date of creation to the present date. which should be auto calculate on daily basis.

  12. =IF(AND(TEXT(B3,"HH:MM")="09:30")=TRUE,B3,IF(TEXT(B3,"HH:MM")>="15:40",DATE(YEAR(B3),MONTH(B3),DAY(B3)+1)+"09:30",DATE(YEAR(B3),MONTH(B3),DAY(B3))+"09:30"))

    here i have formula where date & time convert after (15:40- 23.59) to next day morning 09:30 am
    e. =if B3 date and time is 08/01/2020 15:50 it will convert to 08/02/2020 09:30 am
    simultinioulsy aft 00:00 to Morning 09:29 am it convert same date 09:30 am
    eg.if B3 date and time is 08/02/2020 01:00 am it will convert to 08/02/2020 09:30 am

    but as on on 2nd aug was sunday so i need to converet the same date AND TIME WITH 08/03/2020 09:30 AM

    PLS HELP TO GET IT DONE
    VINOD J

  13. Hi,
    I want to make a spreadsheet of cut off dates which will keep changing every year as the sheet is opened. How will I get this? Whats the excel formula?

  14. I have a spreadsheet with completion dates. For Example:
    2/21/19
    5/24/20
    11/28/19
    I need to calculate the percentage of how many I have that are less than 365 days. How would I go about doing this?

    • Hello!
      If I understand your task correctly, the following formula should work for you:

      =YEARFRAC(DATE(YEAR(A1),1,1),A1)

      I hope my advice will help you solve your task.

  15. Hi. I am trying to calculate future dates from today using a given date in the past such as given date = 6/1/20, today 7/6/20, the fixed day of month (excluding weekends and holidays) is the 1st of each month so I need my formula to tell me the next date from 7/6/20 (in this situation would be 9/1 then 10/1, etc) and to continue for a given period of time. I have the following formula: =WORKDAY(EDATE($B$6,2)-1,1,Sheet2!B1:B14) but it will give me the next month based on todays date. Help please

    • Hello Angela!
      If I understand your problem correctly, you want to determine the first working day of each next month. The formula below will do the trick for you:

      =WORKDAY.INTL(EOMONTH(A1,0),1,1)

      I hope this will help

  16. I need assistance please. I am working on a spreadsheet with a Surname in Column D; Admission date I; Discharge date K; Date back at work L; Deceased Date M; Healthy/Deceased N;
    My formula: =IF(D3="","",IF(N3="Deceased",(_xlfn.DAYS(M3,I3)),(IF(L3="",(_xlfn.DAYS(TODAY(),I3)),_xlfn.DAYS(L3,I3))))) So it means if there is a Surname in D, Look in M if deceased; if deceased calculate Deceased date, if not deceased calculate the Days off sick. What am I missing or doing wrong? I only get the #NAME? Back.

  17. contract start 01-10-2019
    contract end 31-08-2020
    how many days remaining for renewal

    • Hello!
      If I understand your task correctly, the following formula should work for you:

      =C2-TODAY()
      or
      =DATEDIF(TODAY(),C2,"d")
      C2 --- 31-08-2020

  18. Hi , i am working on a file where i want to get Today,Year,PrevExpiry, PrevExpiryStart, currentExpStart,CurrentExpiry,Expiry to calculate dates
    Whereas i am having Expiry dates for a year. Expiry end on Thursday of every month, so Next day,ie Friday will be Start day for expiry.
    The problem is working days are Five in the week and there is holidays and if expiry date is holiday then it will take previous day and if it Last day of the month then it should take first day of the next month.
    Which is not coming in my formula.
    =DATE(YEAR(Today),MONTH(Today)-1,0)+MOD(-WEEKDAY(DATE(YEAR(Today),MONTH(Today)+3,0),2)+1,-7)..where i am missing

  19. Hello I am unable to change date format from MM/DD/YYYY to dd/MM please help me

  20. I am trying to make a chart with conditions that applys a date plus a number of days if a cell states yes in a new cell. I cant think of a proper formula. Can anyone help?

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