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Date formulas

Hello everyone! Did you know…Date formulas can be very useful.
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NOW example of Date formulas

Use the NOW() function for today’s date and time. The result of this formula is “volatile”.

Impact of “volatile” on NOW

Date result part of formula will change tomorrow.

An alternative to NOW

So consider instead using the keyboard combination CTRL + ; and then press Enter so that the cell is permanently date stamped to avoid any confusion later on.

DATE is very useful for Date formulas

Then we have the date function which is:

DATE(YEAR,MONTH,DAY)

It’s good for getting a date in the correct format for Microsoft Excel and you can use the separate YEAR, MONTH and DAY functions as arguments inside it as well if so desired.

Leaving you with WEEKNUM

A final date function for today is the WEEKNUM function which can give you the week number for any given date on your spreadsheet.

See you next time!

Additional Info

Mistake?!

In my video I should really have used the TODAY function instead of the NOW function. We all make mistakes, even me! With NOW() you get the time as well as the date but with TODAY() you get current date only. It’s also volatile!

Another of those keyboard combinations I’m so fond of

Why not try the keyboard combination CTRL + Shift + ; and then press Enter. This gives you a permanent record in a cell of the current time. Without that Shift, as I mentioned in my video, you would get the current date.

Remind me, what day are we?

If you want to record the day number of the week in a cell and say you call Monday day 1 and Sunday day 7 (this is code 2 for argument 2) then, if your date is in cell A6, the date formula to use is:

=WEEKDAY(A6,2)

Your answer will be one of the numbers 1 through 7 depending on which day of the week your date in A6 represents.

Get spreadsheet

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