How to insert dates in Excel - add today's date, auto fill a column with dates

This tutorial demonstrates various ways of entering dates in Excel. See how to insert today's date and current time as static time stamp or dynamic values, how to auto populate a column or row with weekdays, and how to auto fill random dates in Excel.

There are several ways to add dates in Excel depending on what exactly you want to do. For example, do you want to enter a today's date in some report or invoice? Or, perhaps you want to insert a date in Excel that will update automatically and always display the current date and time? Or, maybe you want to auto fill weekdays or input random dates in your worksheet?

In a moment, you will learn all these and a few more date entering techniques. If you are curious to know how Excel stores dates and times, please check out part 1 of this tutorial - Excel date format.

How to enter a date in Excel

You can type a date in an Excel cell in a variety of ways, for example 1/1/2015, or 1-Jan-2015, or 1-Jan, or January 1, 2015. When you type something like that in a cell, Microsoft Excel knows you are entering a date and automatically applies the date format to that cell. Quite often, Excel formats the newly inserted date according to your Windows default date settings, but sometimes it may leave it exactly as you typed.

The most obvious visual indication that Excel has recognized the date you've entered is its right-alignment in a cell as opposed to left-aligned text values.
Various ways to enter a date in Excel

If Excel has failed to recognize your input as a date and you see it left-justified in a cell, try inserting a date in some other format close to your default short or long date formats. These formats are marked with an asterisk (*) in the Format Cell dialog window and you can quickly access them on the Excel ribbon (Home tab > Number group):
The default short or long date formats in Excel

You will be able to easily change the date format later via the Format Cells dialog that opens on the Ctrl + 1 shortcut. For more details, please see How to change the date format in Excel.

Note. If a date you've entered displays as a number of pound signs (#####) in a cell, most likely the cell is not wide enough to fit the entire date. To fix this, double-click the right border of the column to auto fit the date, or drag the right border to set the desired column width. If this does not help, please check other Excel date format troubleshooting tips.

Tip. The fact that Excel automatically recognizes the entered value as a date may not always be what you actually want. We have some tips on how to avoid automatic data formatting.

Inserting today's date and current time in Excel

In Microsoft Excel, you can input the current date and time either as a static or dynamic value.

Shortcuts to enter today date in Excel (as a timestamp)

To begin with, let's define what timestamp is. Timestamping is entering a "static date" that won't change with the course of time or when the spreadsheet is recalculated.

So, if your goal is to enter the current date and/or time as a static value that won't automatically update the next day, you can use one of the following shortcuts:

  • Ctrl + ; shortcut inserts the today date in a cell.
  • Ctrl + Shift + ; shortcut inserts the current time.
  • To enter the current date and time, press Ctrl + ; then press the Space key, and then Ctrl + Shift + ;.

The shortcuts to insert today's date in Excel

Insert an automatically updatable today's date and current time

If you want to input today's date in Excel that will always remain up to date, use one of the following Excel date functions:

=TODAY() - inserts the today date in a cell.

=NOW() - inserts the today date and current time in a cell.
Inserting an automatically updatable today's date and current time

Unlike Excel date shortcuts, the TODAY and NOW functions will always return today's date and current time.

When using the Excel date functions, please keep in mind that:

  • The returned date and time are not refreshed continuously, they are updated only when the spreadsheet is re-opened or re-calculated, or when a macro containing the function is run.
  • The functions take the current date and time from your computer's system clock.

How to insert today date & current time as unchangeable time stamp

This section addresses a handful of comments that have been posted on this page with one and the same question: "What formula do I use to enter a timestamp in my Excel sheet without it changing every time the worksheet is reopened or recalculated?"

For starters, I'd like to note that I'm very hesitant to post this solution because it involves circular references, and they should be treated with great care. Anyway, here goes the formula…

Let's say you have a list of items in column A, and as soon as a certain item is shipped, you enter "Yes" in the Delivery column, which is column B. Once "Yes" is in there, you want to have the current date and time automatically inserted in the same row in column C as a static unchangeable time stamp.

To do this, we are going to use the following nested IF formula with circular references in the second IF function:

=IF(B2="yes", IF(C2="" ,NOW(), C2), "")

Where B is the Delivery column, and C2 is the cell where you input the formula and where the time stamp will eventually appear.
A circular formula to insert a time stamp in Excel

In the above formula, the first IF function checks cell B2 for the word "Yes" (or any other text you supply to the formula), and if the specified text is there, it runs the second IF function, otherwise returns an empty string. And the second IF is a circular formula that makes the NOW function return the current day and time if C2 doesn't have a value in it already, thus saving all existing time stamps.

If instead of checking for any specific word, you want the timestamp to appear when you put anything in the specified cell (that could be any number, text or date), then have the first IF function to check for a non-empty cell, like this:

=IF(B2<>"", IF(C2="" ,NOW(), C2), "")

Note. For this Excel circular formula to work, you should allow iterative calculations in your worksheet. Also, please keep in mind that there are many reasons not to use circular references in Excel, and if you decide to apply this solution in your worksheets, it's on your own risk.

How to auto populate dates in Excel

If you need to insert dates in a range of cells, you can let Excel "auto date" a column or row by using the AutoFill feature as demonstrated below or make a date sequence with formulas as explained in the above-linked tutorial.

Auto fill a date series that increases by one day

To automatically fill a column or row with an incrementing date series that increases by one day, you use Excel's AutoFill feature in the usual way:

  1. Enter your initial date in the first cell.
  2. Click on the cell with the first date to select it, and then drag the fill handle across or down the cells where you want Excel to add dates. (The fill handle is a small green square that appears at the bottom-right corner when you select a cell or a range of cells in Excel, as shown in the screenshot below.)

Auto filling a date series that increases by one day

Auto fill weekdays, months or years

There are two ways to automatically populate the selected range of cells with weekdays, months or years.

  • You can use the Excel AutoFill options as described above. When the range is populated with sequential dates, click the AutoFill Options icon and select the option you want:
    This is how you auto fill weekdays in Excel.
  • Another way is to enter your first date, right-click the fill handle and drag the fill handle through the cells you want to auto fill with dates, and then release it. When you do, Excel displays a context menu and you select the appropriate option from it.
    Another way to auto populate weekdays, months or years in Excel

Auto insert every 2nd, 3rd or Nth day

If you've tried a second solution described above, you probably noticed the Series option near the bottom, which provides a few more auto date features. One of them is inserting every 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. day, month or year in a worksheet. Let's try this now:

  1. Add the first date in some cell.
  2. Select that cell, right-click on the fill handle, drag it down or across several cells, and then release.
  3. In the context menu, click Series.
  4. In the Series dialog box, choose the appropriate Date unit and enter the Step value.
  5. Click OK.

Inserting every 2nd, 3rd or Nth day automatically

How to inset random dates in Excel

Regrettably, Microsoft Excel does not provide an option to enter random dates automatically. Luckily, AbleBits Random Generator for Excel does :)

You simply select a range of cells where you want to autofill dates in a random order, and switch to the Random Generator's pane where you specify:

  • Start and End date;
  • What days to add - weekdays, weekends or both;
  • To add only unique dates, check the Unique values

Then you click the Generate button, and have the selected range populated with random dates.
Inserting random dates in Excel

Apart from dates, the Random Generator add-in can auto fill your worksheets with numbers, Boolean vales and custom lists. If you think this is something that would be useful in your work, you can get it as part of our Ultimate Suite for Excel that includes 70+ time-saving tools and over 300 useful features.

If you are setting up a spreadsheet for other users, and want to make sure they enter dates right, it may be a good idea to insert a drop-down calendar in a worksheet. Your users will be able to fill in dates in a mouse click and you will be 100% confident that all dates are entered in an appropriate format.

If you are using a 32-bit version of Excel, you can use Microsoft's Date Picker control. For the detailed instructions, please see How to insert calendar in Excel (Date Picker control).

If you are using a 64-bit version of Excel 2016, Excel 2013, Microsoft's Date Picker control won't do. In this case, consider using one of the third-party calendars, for example our own one :)

Ablebits drop-down calendar for Excel

For more options, please see third-party drop-down calendars for Excel.

This is how you insert date in Excel. I am hopeful these date entering techniques, shortcuts, functions and Excel auto date features have proved useful to you. Anyway, thank you for reading!

Table of contents

442 comments

  1. wanted to get date auto changed once i made any changes in excel sheet but require date to be change only when i did any changes.

    so how i do this please help

  2. How do I generate a series of dates in a column between a specific range that only provides Tuesday and Thursday or Monday and Wednesday? Thanks.

    • Hi!
      Write the date in cell A1, which is Monday. In cell A2, write down the formula

      =IF(WEEKDAY(A1,2)=1,A1+2,A1+5)

      Copy the formula down the column.
      You can learn more about WEEKDAY function in Excel in this article on our blog.

  3. Hi.
    I’m trying to create a fiscal year calendar starting from April 1st to March 31st where I can input colleagues time off using hours and not days.

    I’ve used a template from excel but when looking at the dates after choosing the year, it’s displaying the dates wrong on some months.

    Ie. February only has 28 days in the month but somehow manages to display 31 and then that puts March 1st on the wrong day.

    The cells all have pretty much a different formula

    Cells C7 to I30 have:
    =IFERROR(IF(TEXT(DATE(Calendar_Year,ROW($A4),1),”ddd”)=LEFT(G$6,3),DATE(Calendar_Year,ROW($A4),1),IF(F7>=1,F7+1,””)),””)

    Cells J7 to AG30 have:
    =IFERROR(IF(I7>=1,I7+1,””),””)

    Cells AH7 to AR30 have:
    =IFERROR(IF(AND(AG7>=1,AG7+1<=DATE(Calendar_Year,ROW($A4)+1,0)),AG7+1,””),””)

    Any help would be much appreciated.

    • Hello!
      I cannot verify how your formulas work. They contain references to cells in your tables. But I can't guess what data is written there. Please provide me with an example of the source data and the expected result.

  4. My difficulty is if i chose cell from another sheet which have "DATE" formula. And i want to change that date into another date to in the cell in which i have to do the modification. So which formula i should use, So i get direct result. like cell have today date (13/11/2021) and i have to change it into 15/11/2021 in the another cell but by keeping reference of the cell which have todays date.

  5. How to auto populate Monday of the week for next few years.

    • Choose your first date (a date when day is Monday) and then use auto fill series option with step of 7. It will give you date of next Monday and so on.

  6. Very helpful and well-written. Thanks!

  7. Hi!
    I have 12 colums (1 for each month). Is there a formula where I can only write the day under january, for example, and it automatically fills the month (january) and year (2021)? Eg: I type 1 under January colum and its fills into 2021-01-01?

    Thank you!

  8. Hey there,
    When I insert a date into a cell it calculates by a value of one (using on a point system), how do I adjust the formula to calculate by a value of .5?

    Thank you,

  9. Good day. I want to auto update the date in a cell, each time I update my sheet. For instance, the date must update in A1 when I enter a value in B1. Then tomorrow when I enter a value in B2, that day"s date must auto update in A2.

    Please help.

    Kind regards
    Werner

  10. I need to make a auto timer with date and time, if time for the next day it’s not changing in date

    • Hello!
      To prevent your date from automatically changing, you can use several methods:
      1. Use Shortcuts to insert the current date and time
      2. Use the recommendations from this article in our blog.
      3. Replace the date and time returned by the TODAY function with their values. Copy the date (CTRL + C), then paste only the values using Paste Special or Shortcut CTRL + ALT + V.

  11. Is there any formula for updating the date automatically once i copy paste the data in another sheet of the excel. The purpose being i need for a stat update daily while keeping the old one.

    • Hello!
      Pay attention to the following paragraph of the article above — Functions to insert today's date that updates automatically

  12. Ok. I am looking for dates to auto populate based on a loan term and how many days left till the end of each month.

    Want the formula to know if the loan term will be 24 months (2 yrs) and or 36 months (3 yrs).
    Would like to create a formula that takes into account todays date, determine how many days left till the end of the month, once the 10 day mark is reached before the end of the month want the dates to auto populate to the next cycle.

    For example using two year term.

    Cell A1 = Loan Payment Date (Example value (06/01/2021)
    Cell B1 = Loan End Date before (Example value (07/01/2023)

    but since todays date is 5/25/2021 want the formula to recognize it is < 10days till end of month and change the Loan Payment Date to 07/01/2021 and the Loan End Date 08/01/2023.

    I know its possible just don't know how to create the formula.

    • Hi!
      An Excel formula can change the value only in the cell that it is pasted in. If you need to change the content on the cell that has some value in it, you’ll need to use a VBA macro.

      • There is a way to do it without using a macro. I guess you are not that advanced in Excel as you would like to think you are.

  13. Sir, i am using =IF(B2"", IF(C2="" ,NOW(), C2), "") this formula and having a problem for last few days.

    Problem is:
    When I go into the spreadsheet, every day take the current date for my last few entries .

    I m using google spreadsheet.

    could you pls give me solution

    • Hello Noman,

      NOW in Google Sheets is a volatile function meaning it recalculates itself each time any change is made in a spreadsheet. There are 2 ways to change this behavior:

      1. Open the spreadsheet, go to File > Spreadsheet settings > Calculation and pick one of three existing settings for Recalculation.
      2. Enter static dates and time manually or using the following keyboard shortcuts:
        • Ctrl+; for date
        • Ctrl+Shift+: for time

  14. copy date and time off pdf sheet into a log?

  15. i use this but its not working
    =IF(B1="yes",IF(C1="yes",NOW(),""),FALSE)

    apple yes 0/1/1900
    banana yes 0/1/1900
    grape yes 0/1/1900

    • Hello!
      If I understand correctly, you want to replace the value in C1 with the current date using the formula. We have said many times on our blog that this is only possible with a VBA macro.

  16. How do I dislay result as "as on today date in excel

  17. I have JAN2021 sheet with columns labeled with dates D2=01-JAN, E2=02-JAN, F2=03-JAN until AG2=30-JAN then rows C4=John, C5=Albert, C6=Mark until C58=Steve with D4:AG58 marked either as x or v. Another sheet called Dates with rows C2=John, C3=Albert until C56=Steve and columns F2:AI56 blank. Question is how can I auto-populate the date in F2:AI56 from Jan2021 sheet when I enter v as a value in D4:AG58?

    JAN2021
    D2=01-Jan
    C4=John
    D4= v

    Dates
    C2=John
    F2=autopopulate 01-Jan

  18. date formula not working

    • Hello!
      Please specify what you were trying to find, what formula you used and what problem or error occurred. Give an example of the source data and the expected result.
      It’ll help me understand it better and find a solution for you.

  19. i want your help please...
    i want to enter the specific month and year on A3, and i want to automatic fill A7 with the next month of A3, how will i do it?
    Thanks

  20. one question!
    how insert date automatically in Excel every day change it automatically date?

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