How would you count someone’s age? Simple, by calculating
the difference between two dates. There are certain situations where you need
to get the number of years, number of months, number of days. There are
different ways to get it but the best way to calculate difference between two
dates in excel is to use the Dated If function. But the funny thing is that
this is a hidden function in excel. You won’t be able to locate this function
in the Formula Menu. Even if you write the function excel won’t show the
parameter suggestions like it does for other functions. So, you need to
understand and use the function on your own. Well, not exactly. I’ll be guiding
you. So, let's have a look at the Function.
This is how the Dated If Formula looks:
= DatedIF(Start Date, End Date, "Unit")
We have the Starting Date as the first argument. Here you
can write the date or choose a date reference. This date can be written in text
or formatted as a date.
The End Date is the second parameter. Here you can write the
date or choose a date reference. This date can be written in text or formatted
as a date. This date, however, cannot be earlier than the start date.
The unit is the third parameter. There are six Units in the
Dated If function, however one of them is broken. This is why this feature is
disabled. The following are the units and their explanations:
"Y" = Years are calculated by subtracting dates in
Excel. If the start date is 2/26/1995 and the end date is 10/29/2023, the
"Y" unit will show 28. Between the start and finish dates, there are
28 years.
In Excel, type "M" to get months by subtracting
dates. For instance, if the beginning date is 2/26/1995 and the ending date is 10/29/2023,
the "M" unit will show 344. Between the start and finish dates, there
are 344 months.
"D" stands for "days" when subtracting
dates. For instance, if the beginning date is 2/26/1995 and the ending date is 10/29/2023,
the "D" unit will show 10,473. Between the start and finish dates,
there are 10,473 days.
"MD" denotes a unit that isn't working properly.
It was designed to calculate the difference between the start and finish dates
without taking into account the months and years. However, it does not function
properly. Consider the following scenario: The "MD" unit should
display 3 if the start date is 2/26/1995 and the end date is 10/29/2023. It
should only calculate the difference in days, not months or years. The
difference is 3 because the starting date was 21 and the ending date was 24.
"YM" = This will calculate the difference between
the month of the start date and the month of the end date, ignoring days and
years. If the start date is 2/26/1995 and the end date is 10/29/2023, the
"YM" unit will show 8. It will only calculate the difference in
months, not days or years. The month of the starting date was 1 and the month
of the finishing date was 9, so the difference is 8.
"YD" = This will calculate the difference between
the days of the start date and the days of the end date, ignoring months and
years. For instance, if the start date is 2/26/1995 and the end date is 10/29/2023,
the "YD" unit will show 246. Because there are 246 days between the
21st of January and the 24th of September. I hope you understand what I'm
trying to say.
If you're using the DatedIf Function to determine the
difference between dates in Excel, there are a few things to keep in mind.
1. Your starting date must be less than or equal to the
ending date, or the formula will return a NUM error.
2. Your date format (both the beginning and ending dates)
must match the date format of your computer. If you don't, you'll get a Value
Error.
3. If you enter the date as text in the formula, it must be
enclosed in double quotation marks.
To understand more about the known concerns with the DatedIF
function, see this Microsoft article .
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