Calculating the difference between 2 dates

Excel Tip #002

Calculating the difference between 2 dates

Calculating the difference between 2 dates is more frequent problem which most of us faced. Below is a solution for the same.

We are going to use 2 Excel function in this post - DATEDIF() and NOW(). Let us consider the first problem, calculating the difference between 2 dates where we will use the DATEDIF() function.

The syntax of the DATEDIF() function is,
=DATEDIF(start_date, end_date, unit)

The value fields, start_date & end_date takes up the date. unit field is the time unit that we are going to use - years (y), months (m) or days (d).

Consider 2 dates as an example in mmddyyyy format: Our start_date being 7/15/1967 (July 15, 1967) and end_date 12/8/1990 (December 8, 1990). The start_date and end_date are defined in cell B2 & B3 in my excel.

To calculate the # of years. To denote the number of years, I have concatenated the text "years" using & symbol.
          # of years, Formula: =DATEDIF(B2,B3,"y")&" years"
Retrieving # of years between 2 dates
To calculate the # of months.
          # of years & months, Formula: =DATEDIF(B2,B3,"ym")&" months"
          # of months, Formula: =DATEDIF(B2,B3,"m")&" months"
Retrieving # of months between 2 dates
To calculate the # of days.
          # of months & days, Formula: =DATEDIF(B2,B3,"md")&" days"
          # of days, Formula: =DATEDIF(B2,B3,"d")&" days"
Retrieving # of days between 2 dates
Below, all the above formula are combined into one formula to get the # of years, months & days.

Formula: =DATEDIF(B2,B3,"y")&"years " & DATEDIF(B2,B3,"ym")&" months" & DATEDIF(B2,B3,"md")&" days"
Retrieving # of years, months & days between 2 dates

ADDITIONAL TIP - AGE CALCULATION
We are going to use the same DATEDIF() function in conjunction with NOW() function. The NOW() returns the current system date and time.

This is also similar to the above problem of calculating the difference between 2 dates but in the start_date field we will use the person birth date and in end_date field, we will use NOW() function.

Let us consider a person was born on 9/4/1978 (September 4, 1978) and wants to calculate the age. This person birth date is in cell B2 in my excel.

Formula: =DATEDIF(B2,NOW(),"y")&"years " & DATEDIF(B2,NOW(),"ym")&" months" & DATEDIF(B2,NOW(),"md")&" days"
Calculating the age of a person

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