Want to calculate the difference between two dates in Excel in days, months, or years?

The DATEDIF function allows you to calculate the difference between 2 dates in days, months or years.

It works as follows:

=DATEDIF(start_date, end_date, unit)

The units are coded as follows:

  • “y“: Difference in years
  • “m“: Difference in months
  • “d“: Difference in days
  • “ym“: Difference in months, after subtracting years
  • “yd“: Difference in days, after subtracting years
  • “md“: Difference in days, after subtracting years and months

Examples of how this feature can be applied:

This function is special because although it has been around for a long time, it is not referenced by Excel and therefore cannot be used via the fx function help.