Understanding Date/Time Functions in Excel

At times, you may need to calculate the time interval between two dates in years, months, days, hours or even minutes and seconds.   Luckily, Excel supplies several functions for calculating dates and times and the amount of time between two dates and/or times.   Below are some common date/time functions and any arguments that they may take:

·      DATE(year, month, day) – Creates a date based on the arguments.   The arguments can be hard coded (i.e. =DATE(2003, 1, 23) or cell references (=DATE(A1, B1, C1))

·      TODAY() – Displays today’s date in a cell.

·      NOW() – Displays the current date and time in a cell.  It is only updated when the worksheet is recalculated or a file is opened. 

·      DAY – returns the “day” value for a specific date.

·      MONTH – returns the “month” value for a specific date.

·      YEAR – returns the “year” value for a specific date.

·      TIME(hour, minute, second) – Creates a time based on the arguments.

·      HOUR – returns the “hour” value for a specific time.

·      MINUTE – returns the “minute” value for a specific time.

·      SECOND – returns the “second” value for a specific time.

·      Days360(begin_date, end_date) – returns the number of days between two dates based on a 360-day year (two 30-day months), which is used in some accounting calculations.  Use this function to help compute payments if your accounting systems is based on twelve 30-day months.  

 To Use a Date or Time Function

1. Activate the cell where you wish to insert your date/time function.
2. Click the Insert Function button to the left of the formula bar
3.  Or
4.  Click the Formulas tab on the Ribbon and click the Insert Function button on the Function Library group.
5. Select Date & Time from the Category drop-down list.
6. Select the desired date or time function from the Select a Function list box.
7. Click OK.
8. Type any required arguments or click the collapse dialog box to select them manually in your worksheet.
9. Click OK when finished.

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