Many Excel users will require start and end date columns in their spreadsheets. As a result, Excel includes a few functions that calculate the number of days between two dates. The functions DATEDIF, DAYS360, DATE, and NETWORKDAYS can be added to cells to calculate the number of days between two dates.
What is Microsoft Excel?
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program developed by Microsoft that is available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. It includes calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), a macro programming language. Excel is part of the Microsoft Office software suite.
Who is the Developer of Microsoft Excel?
Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is the company’s flagship word processing software. Multi-Tool Word for Xenix was first released in 1993, and subsequent versions were created for a variety of operating systems, including DOS, Apple Macintosh, SCO UNIX, OS/2, and Microsoft Windows.
Why Calculate Days Between Two Dates Using Excel?
Do you want to know how many days there are between the two dates? Maybe you need to know how many days there are between today and some date in the past or future. Or do you simply want to count the number of working days between two dates? Whatever your issue is, one of the examples below will almost certainly provide a solution.
How To Calculate Days Between Two Dates Using Excel
Here are the steps of How To Calculate Days Between Two Dates Using Excel for you to read and follow. Follow the provided steps carefully.
How to Find the Date Difference in the Absence of a Function
To begin, subtracting the dates will give you the difference. Although Excel lacks a subtract function, you can still add subtraction formulas to cells.
- So, open a new Excel spreadsheet and enter a start and end date in cells B4 and C4, as shown in the screenshot below. Please keep in mind that dates should be written in US format, with the month first, the day second, and the year third.
- Select cell D4, then click inside the formula bar at the top, type ‘=C4-B4’ in the bar, and press Enter. Cell D4 will yield a result of 34.
Using the DATE Function to Determine the Difference Between Two Dates
Alternatively, you can use the DATE function to find the difference between two dates. Then, instead of using spreadsheet cells, you can find the number of days by entering the dates in the function bar. That function’s basic syntax is: =DATE(yyyy, m, d)-DATE(yyyy, m, d); so you input the dates backward.
Let’s add that function with the same dates of 4/1/2017 and 5/5/2017.
Choose a cell on the spreadsheet to which you want to add the function. Then, inside the function bar, type ‘=DATE(2022, 5, 5)-DATE(2022, 4, 1)’ and hit Enter. If the value returned is in date format, you may also need to select a general number format for the cell. The cell will return a value of 34 days with a general number format, as shown in the screenshot below.
In Excel, this is how you calculate the number of days between two dates. When you run the above formulas and get #NUM instead of a number, it’s because the start date is later than the end date. Attempt flipping the dates and repeating the steps.
