How to calculate days between two dates in Excel

As an Excel user, there may be times when you need to add start and end date columns to your spreadsheets. As such, Excel includes some functions that tell you how many days there are between two different dates. You can add four Excel functions to cells that tell you how many days exist between two specific dates. This article describes using Excel to calculate days between two selected dates with and without using those functions. Let us begin.

How to find the difference between dates in Excel without a function

First, you can find the difference between dates by subtracting them. Excel does not include a subtraction function, but you can still add subtraction formulas to your cells. Here’s how to do it for dating.

1. Open a “white” Excel spreadsheet and enter a “begin” and “end” date in cells “B4” and “C4”, as shown in the following snapshot. Please note that the dates must be in US format, with the month first, the day second, and the year third.
   
2. Now select the cell “D4” click inside the “Formula bar” at the top, then write “=C4-B4” and press “Get into.” Cell “D4” will return a value of “34”. Note: “C4” goes first because you are subtracting.
   

How to find the difference between two dates in Excel using the DATE function

You can find the difference between two dates using the DATE function. You can then find the number of days by entering the dates in the function bar instead of in the spreadsheet cells. The basic syntax for that function is “=DATE(yyyy,m,d)-DATE(yyyy,m,d)”. To correctly calculate the difference, the last date is first inserted.

1. Select a “cell” in the spreadsheet where you want to add the function, then make sure it is set to “General” Format.
   
2. Click inside the “function bar” then write “=DATE(2022, 5, 5)-DATE(2022, 4, 1)” and press “Get into.”
   

Finding the difference between two dates using the DATEDIF function

DATEDIF is a flexible function to calculate total days by entering dates in the spreadsheet or function bar. However, DATEDIF does not appear in Excel Insert Function window because only exists for the compatibility of the Lotus 1-2-3 book.

Also, Using DATEDIF can produce incorrect results in some situations.. For more details, see this Excel DATE YES help page.

If you decide to use the “DATEIF” function, you will need to enter it directly in the function bar. The syntax includes DATEIF(start_date, end_date, unit). You can enter a start date and an end date or cell references to specific dates in the function and then add the unit “days” to the end of it. Here’s how to do it.

1. Select the “cell” in the spreadsheet where you want to place the function, then set it to “General” Format.
   
2. To find the difference in days (including years) entered in cells B6 and C6, type “=DATEDIF(B6, C6, "d")” in the function bar and press “Enter”. The “d” represents the “days” format.
   
3. If you need to ignore years in the calculation, replace “d” with “yard,” then you get a formula that appears like “=DATEDIF(B4, C4, "yd").” They” excludes years, but the “d” includes “days.”
   

If you encounter any errors, insert the oldest cell, listed as “B6,” in the example above.

Find the difference between two dates using DAYS360 function

The DAYS360 function finds the total days between dates based on a 360-day calendar, which is more widely adopted for financial years. As such, that might be a better feature for account spreadsheets. There won’t be much difference for dates just a few months apart, but DAYS360 will return slightly different values ​​over longer periods of time than the other functions.

1. Get into ‘1/1/2021‘ and ‘1/1/2022‘ in cells B6 and C6 of your spreadsheet.
   
2. Then click on a cell to include the “DAYS360” function and click “Formulas > Date and time”.
   
3. From the “Date and Time” drop-down menu, select “DAYS360”.
   
4. Click on the “Start date” button and type “B6” click on the “Final date” button and type “C6” and then press “OK.”
   
5. The “DAYS360” function will return a value of 360.
   

Finding the difference between two dates using the NETWORKDAYS function

What if you need to find the difference between two dates but exclude weekends from the equation? DATEDIF, DATE and DAYS360 will not adapt to such a scenario. NETWORKDAYS is a function that finds the number of days between dates not including weekends and can also take into account additional holidays such as public holidays.

So it’s supposed to be a function for project planning. The basic syntax of the function is: =NETWORK DAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays]).

1. Click a cell where you want to add the function and select “Formulas > Date and time > NETWORK DAYS”.
   
2. Guy “B7” for “start_date” and “C7” for “End_Date” and click “OK.”
   
3. Using the start and end dates of 4/1/2022 and 5/5/2022, the NETWORK DAYS The function returns a value of 25 days between dates, not counting weekends. With weekends included, the total days are 34, as in previous examples.
   
4. Enter dates in other cells of the spreadsheet to include additional holidays in the function. Press the “Holidays” cell reference button in the NETWORKDAYS function window and select the cells with holiday dates. That will deduct vacations from the final figure.
   

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As you can see, there are numerous ways to calculate the days between start and end dates in Excel spreadsheets. Newer versions of Excel also include a DAYS function that is used to find the difference between a pair of dates. Those functions will certainly be useful for spreadsheets that have a lot of dates.

Frequent questions

What does #NUM mean?

When you do the above formulas and receive #NUM instead of a number, the start date exceeds the end date. Try reversing the dates and doing the steps again.