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- ======================================================================
- Microsoft Product Support Services Application Note (Text File)
- WE0127: Dates and Times
- ======================================================================
- Revision Date: 2/92
- No Disk Included
-
- The following information applies to Microsoft Excel for Windows
- version 3.0.
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------
- | INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT AND ANY SOFTWARE THAT MAY |
- | ACCOMPANY THIS DOCUMENT (collectively referred to as an |
- | Application Note) IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY |
- | KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO |
- | THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A |
- | PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The user assumes the entire risk as to the |
- | accuracy and the use of this Application Note. This Application |
- | Note may be copied and distributed subject to the following |
- | conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and |
- | all pages must be included; 2) If software is included, all files |
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- | utility DISKCOPY is appropriate for this purpose]; 3) All |
- | components of this Application Note must be distributed together; |
- | and 4) This Application Note may not be distributed for profit. |
- | |
- | Copyright 1992 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. |
- | Microsoft, MS-DOS, and the Microsoft logo are registered |
- | trademarks and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. |
- --------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- General Information
- -------------------
-
- Microsoft Excel for Windows uses serial numbers to keep track of dates
- and times. Using this serial number system, you can add, subtract, and
- compare dates and times as you do any other number values. This date
- and time system begins with the serial number 1.0, which represents
- 1/1/1900 0:00:00 (12:00:00 a.m.), and increases by 1.0 for every 24
- elapsed hours, ending with the serial number 65380.99999, which
- represents 12/31/2078 23:59:59 (11:59:59 p.m.). The integer portion of
- the serial number represents the date, and the decimal portion
- represents the time.
-
- It is important to note that Microsoft Excel for Windows cannot
- manipulate dates that extend beyond the range of 1/1/1900 through
- 12/31/2078. Using a date outside of this range will result in an
- error.
-
- Comparing Dates and Times
- -------------------------
-
- Because Excel uses serial numbers when calculating functions that
- involve dates and times, you may get results that are different from
- what you expect. For instance, the following function may return FALSE
- even if today's date is 1/31/92:
-
- =IF(NOW()=DATEVALUE("1/31/92"),TRUE,FALSE)
-
- This function will return TRUE only when the current date and time are
- 1/31/92 and 12:00:00 a.m. This is because the NOW function returns the
- serial number of the current date and time, which may not equal the
- serial number of only the date, which is returned by the DATEVALUE
- function. The correct formula for comparing today's date with another
- date is:
-
- =IF(TODAY()=DATEVALUE("1/31/92"),TRUE,FALSE)
-
- Another workable formula is:
-
- =IF(INT(NOW())=DATEVALUE("1/31/92"),TRUE,FALSE)
-
- In the preceding formula, the INT function strips the decimal portion
- of the serial number from the NOW function. Thus, the formula returns
- TRUE.
-
-
- Date Formulas
- -------------
-
- The following example shows how the various date functions can be
- used:
-
- --------------------------------------------------
- | | A | B | C |
- |--------------------------------------------------|
- | 1 | DATE1 | DATE2 | DIFFERENCE |
- |--------------------------------------------------|
- | 2 | 12/20/1970 | 1/20/2000 | |
- --------------------------------------------------
-
- 1. To find the number of days between two dates, subtract the earlier
- date from the later date:
-
- =B2-A1
-
- 2. To compute the number of days between the current date and the date
- specified in cell B2, use:
-
- =B2-TODAY()
-
- 3. To find the number of years, months, and days between two dates,
- use:
-
- =YEAR(B2)-YEAR(A2)-IF(OR(MONTH(B2)<MONTH(A2),
- AND(MONTH(B2)=MONTH(A2),DAY(B2)<DAY(A2))),1,0)&"y"
- &MOD(MONTH(B2)-MONTH(A2),12)-IF(DAY(B2)<DAY(A2),1,0)&"m"
- &B2-DATE(YEAR(B2),MONTH(B2)-IF(DAY(B2)<DAY(A2),1,0),DAY(A2))&"d"
-
- In the above formulas, lines 1 and 2 calculate the number of years
- between the dates in cells A2 and B2. Line 3 calculates the number
- of months between the dates in cells A2 and B2, ignoring years and
- days. Line 4 calculates the number of days between the dates in
- cells A2 and B2, ignoring years and months. The ampersand symbol
- (&) concatenates the formulas together and labels the result with y,
- m, and d. If you entered these formulas in cell C2 of our example,
- 29y0m21d would be the result.
-
- 4. To find the number of weekdays between two dates, use:
-
- =B2-A2-INT((B2-A2)/7)*2-IF(WEEKDAY(B2)<WEEKDAY(A2),2,0)
-
- If you entered this formula in cell C2 of the above example, 7581
- would be the result.
-
- 5. To increase a date by a given number of years, months, and days,
- use
-
- =DATE(YEAR(A2)+y,MONTH(A2)+m,DAY(A2)+d)
-
- where y, m, and d are the number of years, months, and days by
- which you want to increase the date in cell A2.
-
- 6. To determine the total number of days in the month of a given date,
- use:
-
- =DAY(DATE(YEAR(A2),MONTH(A2)+1,0))
-
- In our example, this formula would return 31.
-
- 7. To determine the total number of days in the year of a given date,
- use:
-
- =DATE(YEAR(A2)+1,1,0)-DATE(YEAR(A2),1,0)
-
- In our example, this formula would return 365.
-
- Time Formulas
- -------------
-
- The following example shows how the various time functions can be
- used:
-
- ---------------------------------------------
- | | A | B | C |
- |---------------------------------------------|
- | 1 | START | END | DIFFERENCE |
- |---------------------------------------------|
- | 2 | 6:30 AM | 7:15 PM | 12:45 |
- |---------------------------------------------|
- | 3 | 7:45 PM | 10:30 AM | 14:45 |
- ---------------------------------------------
-
-
-
- 1. To find the amount of elapsed time between two given times, simply
- subtract the earlier time from the later:
-
- =B2-A2
-
- The result of this formula will be the serial number representing
- the elapsed hours, minutes, and seconds. To change the serial
- number to a more conventional format, select the cell, choose
- Number from the Format menu, and then select one of the time
- formats, such as h:mm.
-
- 2. If midnight falls between your starting and ending times, as in row
- 3 of the example, you must account for the 24-hour time difference
- between the serial numbers, as in the following formula:
-
- =MOD(B3-A3,1)
-
- 3. To add a series of hours and minutes where the total exceeds 24
- hours, Excel will begin to count over again at 1. For example, if
- you add cells C2 and C3 using a simple sum formula such as
-
- =C2+C3
-
- the result of this formula will be 3:30 if the cell was formatted
- as h:mm, or 1.145833 if the cell was formatted as General. Neither
- result returns the number of hours elapsed as desired. The
- following formula multiplies the sum by 24, which accounts for this
- "roll over" into a new day:
-
- =24*(C2+C3)
-
- This formula will return the correct answer of 27.5 hours.
-
- More Information
- ----------------
-
- For an index of all valid date and time functions, see the "Microsoft Excel
- for Windows Function Reference," version 3.0, page xvi.
-
-
-