Excel DATEDIF Function

To get the difference between two date values in years, months or even days, we can use the excel DATEDIF function. This is a compatibility function that originates from Lotus 1-2-3. This post provides a clear elaboration on how to use the Excel DATEDIF function to get differences in date values in years, months and days.

Figure 1: How find time differences using DATEDIF function

General syntax of the formula

=DATEDIF (start_date, end_date, unit)

Where;

• Start_date– refers to the start date in the excel date serial number format
• End_date– refers to the end date in the excel serial number format
• Unit- time unit in use, (years, months or days)

Understanding the formula

• This function is only documented in Excel 2000. This means that Excel will not fill out the arguments for you. But if configured correctly, the function works perfectly.
• The function calculates the time in between the start and end dates. This can be in years, months or days.
• The unit argument refers to the time to be returned, and can be supplied as text.
• If the start date is greater than the end date, the DATEDIF function will return a #NUM error.
• To manage the error, especially when the start and end dates are unknown, you can use the IFERROR function.

Example

Figure 2: Using DATEDIF function to find time differences

In this example, we want to find the time differences between start time in column B and end time in column C.

• In the result column, which is column E, we shall have the time differences for all the dates indicated.
• In cell E2 we put our formula; =DATEDIF (B2,C2,”Y”)
• We then press Enter to get the time difference for that row.
• We then copy down the formula to get the results for all the other rows, in the result column.

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