Excel — 3 ways to calculate number of days between dates + bonus

Often there are many ways in life to accomplish the same result. Excel is no different. Here are 3 methods to find out the number of days between dates. Useful to calculate how many days you’ve been on this earth or more practically — how many days until a deadline date.

1. DAYS Function = DAYS (First date, Second date)

Excel DAYS function showing days between 2 dates

2. SUBTRACTION = First date — Second date

Excel subtract 2 dates to get number of days between them

3. DATEDIF Function = DATEDIF(First date, Second date, “d”)

Excel DATEDIF function to show number of days between 2 dates.

**BONUS — Months and Years

With the DATEDIF Function you can swap the “d” for “m” or “y”, and instead of returning the number of days between 2 dates you can see the number of months or years.

Excel DATEDIF function showing days, months and years between2 dates.

Try it out — Open up Excel and calculate how many days you’ve been here on this planet.