📊 Excel Basics #29 – TODAY(), NOW() & Basic Date Functions

Dates are extremely important in Excel, especially when working with sales, invoices, employee data, projects, and deadlines.

Excel provides built-in functions to work with the current date and time.

📌 1. TODAY() Function

"TODAY()" returns the current date.

Syntax:

=TODAY()

Example:

If today's date is 17-Aug-2026, the formula returns:

17-Aug-2026

The value automatically updates when Excel recalculates on a different day.

📌 2. NOW() Function

"NOW()" returns the current date and time.

Syntax:

=NOW()

Example:

17-Aug-2026 13:08

The exact displayed format depends on your cell formatting and system settings.

📌 TODAY() vs NOW()

"TODAY()" → Current date

"NOW()" → Current date + time

📌 3. Calculate Days Since a Date

Suppose an employee's joining date is in "A2".

Formula:

=TODAY()-A2

This returns the number of days between the joining date and today.

💡 Example:

Joining Date → "01-Jan-2026"

Formula:

=TODAY()-A2

Result → Number of days since joining.

📌 4. Check Whether a Date Has Passed

Suppose a project deadline is in "A2".

Formula:

=IF(A2