Excel Tutorial – DATEDIF

The DATEDIF function in Microsoft Excel is a built-in function that allows you to calculate the number of days, months, or years between two dates. It takes three arguments: the start date, the end date, and the unit of time that you want to use to calculate the difference between the two dates.

To use the DATEDIF function in Excel, follow these steps:

1. Open a new or existing worksheet in Excel.
2. Select the cell where you want to display the result of the DATEDIF function.
3. Type the following formula in the cell: =DATEDIF(start_date, end_date, unit)
4. Replace “start_date” with the cell reference or the start date, “end_date” with the cell reference or the end date, and “unit” with the unit of time that you want to use to calculate the difference between the two dates.

The “unit” argument can be one of the following values:

• “d” to calculate the number of days between the two dates
• “m” to calculate the number of months between the two dates
• “y” to calculate the number of years between the two dates

5. Press Enter to calculate the result of the DATEDIF function.

For example, let’s say you have a list of start dates in column A and end dates in column B, and you want to calculate the number of days between each pair of dates and display the result in column C. You can use the DATEDIF function as follows:

1. In cell C1, type the formula =DATEDIF(A1, B1, “d”)
2. Press Enter to calculate the result.
3. Select cell C1, and then drag the fill handle (the small square in the bottom-right corner of the cell) down to fill the formula in the remaining cells of column C.

This will calculate the number of days between each pair of dates in columns A and B and display the result in column C.

Note: The DATEDIF function only calculates the difference between two dates, and does not include the start date or the end date in the calculation. If you want to include the start date or the end date in the calculation, you can use the DAYS function instead.