How to Use Microsoft Excel Date Difference Function

DATEDIF is used to calculate elapsed time.

If you want to find out how much time has elapsed between dates in Excel, use the DATEDIF function. The format for the DATEDIF function is "=DATEDIF(Date1, Date2, Interval," where Date1 is the first date, Date2 is the second date and Interval is the interval type to return. You can select from six intervals: "m" for months; "d" for days; "y" for years; "ym" for months excluding years; "yd" for days excluding years; and "md" for days excluding years and months.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Type a date into a cell. For example, type "10/02/2010" into cell A1.

2. Type a second date into a cell. The second date should be later than the first date. For example, type "10/06/2010" into cell B1.

3. Type an interval into another cell. For example, type "d" into cell C1.

4. Click on another cell and type the DATEDIF formula, inserting the cell locations of the DATEDIF components. In this example, type "=DATEDIF(A1,B1,C1)".

5. Press the Enter key for the result. In the example, the result returned will be "4," indicating there are four days difference between the two dates.

Tips & Warnings

• You can include the interval in the function itself. If you include the interval in the function, you must surround the term in quotes. For example, "=DATEDIF(A1,B2,"d")" would return the number of days elapsed between the dates in cells A1 and B2.

• Date1 cannot be later than Date2. If it is, you'll get a #NUM! error. If you receive #VALUE! error, the dates are in an invalid format.

References

• "CPearson"; The DATEDIF Worksheet Function; Chip Pearson; June 2009
• Tech on the Net: MS Excel -- DATEDIF Function