
The value in each of the cells should appear as a date instead of a serial number.Īdd years to or subtract years from a date On the Home tab, under Format, select Format Cells, and then select Date. If your results appear as serial numbers, follow these steps to change the format: Why do my results appear as numbers instead of dates?ĭepending on the format of the cells that contain the formulas that you entered, Excel might display the results as serial numbers in this case, 2/16/14 might be displayed as 41686. In this case, the function uses a date value that you enter directly, "10/16/12."Ĭells B5 and C5 both show the date 2/16/14. The function uses the value in cell A5 as the starting date. In cell B5, type =EDATE(A5,16), and then press RETURN. You can specify the value of the start date either by referring to a cell that contains a date value or by entering a date enclosed in quotation marks, such as "2/15/12".įor example, suppose you want to add 16 months to October 16, 2012. This formula subtracts 5 months from 2/15/12 and results in the date 9/15/11. To subtract months, enter a negative number as the second argument (for example, =EDATE("2/15/12",-5)). The EDATE function requires two values (also referred to as argument): the start date and the number of months that you want to add or subtract. You can use the EDATE function to quickly do this. Suppose that you want to add or subtract a specific number of whole months to or from a date. Cells B1 and D1 show the dates (1/24/12 and 2/23/12) by which you should transfer your funds so that those funds arrive 15 calendar days before the due dates.Īdd months to or subtract months from a date This formula subtracts 15 days from the date in cell C1.Ĭells A1 and C1 show the due dates (2/8/12 and 3/9/12) for the February and March account balances. In cell D1, type =C1-15, and then press RETURN.

This formula adds 30 days to the date in cell A1. In cell C1, type =A1+30, and then press RETURN.

This formula subtracts 15 days from the date in cell A1. In cell B1, type =A1-15, and then press RETURN. In addition, you know that your account has a 30-day billing cycle, and you want to determine when you should transfer funds for your March 2012 bill so that those funds are available 15 days before that date.

You want to transfer funds to your checking account so that those funds arrive 15 calendar days before the due date. Suppose that an account balance is due on February 8, 2012.

You can add or subtract a number of days, months, or years to or from a date by using a simple formula, or you can use sheet function that are designed to work specifically with dates. Suppose you want to adjust a project’s completion date by adding two weeks or you want to determine the length of an individual task in a list of tasks.
