Dates and Times in Excel

Last reviewed May 28, 2026 Content v20260528

Track mode

none

Means

Read / quiz

Reading

~1 min

Level

beginner

This lesson

This lesson teaches Dates and Times in Excel: Excel concepts, formulas, and analysis patterns you recreate locally in a workbook.

Teams apply Dates and Times in Excel in every serious Excel workflow—skipping it leaves errors in models stakeholders trust.

You will apply Dates and Times in Excel in contexts like: Finance, operations, reporting, and quick what-if analysis before a full BI stack.

Read the lesson, type formulas in your local Excel or compatible spreadsheet, rebuild examples in excel-practice.xlsx, and complete MCQs—no in-browser runner.

When you can explain the previous lesson's ideas in your own words.

Excel stores dates as serial numbers (day count from epoch). Times are fractions of a day. Display is format-only.

Formulas

=TODAY()
=NOW()
=A1+7   ' date seven days after A1 if A1 is date

Functions

=YEAR(A1), =MONTH(A1), =EOMONTH(A1,0) for month-end.

Locale

US vs EU date order confusion—prefer ISO yyyy-mm-dd in shared files or document assumptions.

Important interview questions and answers

Q: TODAY() volatile?
A: Recalculates when workbook recalculates.
Q: Serial number?
A: Underlying numeric date representation.

Self-check

What does TODAY() return?
Why document date format in shared files?

Tip: Store dates as real serials; never leave ambiguous 01/02/03 text in shared models.

Interview prep

Serial date?: Number representing days; display is formatting.

Discussion

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Starter discussion topics

Serial dates?
ISO format why?

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