Excel DATEDIF Function | Excel One Minute Quick Reference

Posted on: 10/07/2021

Need to know the number of years, months, or days between two dates? Excel's DATEDIF function will calculate it for you. This is a great function if you work in Human Resources (HR), or any job position where you need the difference in dates. I also use the TODAY function - which I recently covered in two videos and mixed and absolute reference.

DATEDIF Function in Excel — DATEDIF - find years, months, and days between two dates

YouTube Video

Syntax for DATEDIF

=DATEDIF(start_date,end_date,unit)

Units in DATEDIF

UNIT	Description
Y	The number of complete years in the period.
M	The number of complete months in the period.
D	The number of days in the period.
MD	The difference between the days in start_date and end_date. The months and years of the dates are ignored.
YM	The difference between the months in start_date and end_date. The days and years of the dates are ignored.

DATEDIF Units - Microsoft Excel — DATEDIF Units - YM is used in this example

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Chris Menard

Chris Menard is a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and is employed full-time as a Trainer for BakerHostetler, one of the nation’s largest law firms. Menard has a YouTube channel with over 900 technology videos covering Excel, Word, Zoom, Teams, Outlook, Gmail, Google Calendar, and other resources that over 16 million viewers have appreciated. Menard also does public speaking at conferences for CPAs and Administrative Professionals. Connect with Chris on LinkedIn at chrismenardtraining.com/linked or on YouTube at chrismenardtraining.com/youtube