Excel Intermediate Date and Time Functions
INTERMEDIATE Time and Date Functions
Learn to insert the current time and date and work with TODAY NOW DAY MONTH and YEAR in Excel.
Time and Date Functions Overview
Excel can insert current date and time information and extract useful parts from dates stored in worksheet cells.
Inserting the current time and date and using TODAY NOW DAY MONTH and YEAR.
Current Date
TODAY returns the current date.
Current Date and Time
NOW returns the current date together with the current time.
Date Parts
DAY MONTH and YEAR return individual components from a date value.
Essential Terms
Review the key terms used when working with dates and times in Excel.
Current Time and Date
Excel supports current date and time entries and functions that update according to the system date and time.
TODAY and NOW
TODAY returns the current date while NOW returns both the current date and current time.
TODAY
=TODAY()
Returns the current date.
NOW
=NOW()
Returns the current date and time.
Use TODAY when only the date is needed and NOW when both date and time are required.
DAY Function
DAY returns the day number from a date value.
Syntax
=DAY(serial_number)
The argument is an Excel date value or a cell containing a date.
Example
=DAY(A2)
Returns the day component of the date stored in A2.
MONTH and YEAR
MONTH and YEAR extract the month number and year number from a date value.
Interactive Function Explorer
Review TODAY NOW DAY MONTH and YEAR and the information each function returns.
Key Takeaways
Match each date and time function to the worksheet result it produces.
Returns the current date.
Returns the current date and current time.
Returns the day number from a date.
Returns the month number from a date.
Returns the year number from a date.
Knowledge Check
Test your understanding of current date and time entries and the TODAY NOW DAY MONTH and YEAR functions.