Excel Formula: Display Current Date and Time
In this tutorial, it provides the formulas to display the current date and time in Excel.
If you want to follow along with this tutorial, please download the example spreadsheet.
Display current date only
Generic formula:
| TODAY() |
Return Value
The formula returns to a date.
How this formula works
In a cell, type the formula :
| =TODAY() |
Press Enter key to get the current date.
Remark
The current date will automatically change as the date changes. If you want to insert a fixed current date, you can use the shortcut Ctrl + ; to insert the fixed current date into a cell.
Display current date and time
Generic formula:
| NOW() |
Return Value
The formula returns to a date.
How this formula works
In a cell, type the formula :
| =NOW() |
Press Enter key to get the current date.
Usually, the cell is formatted as short date. To display the time fully, you need to change the cell formating to date time.
Press Ctrl + 1 to display the Format Cells dialog, under Number tab, choose Custom from the Category list, then type m/d/yyyy h:mm:ss into the Type textbox.
Click OK, then the current date and time have been displayed fully.
Remark
The current datetime will automatically change as the datetime changes. If you want to insert a fixed current time, you can use the shortcut Shift +Ctrl + ; to insert the fixed current time into a cell.
Relative Formulas
- Count days of month
This tutorial provides formulas to count the total days of the month based on given date. - Count days until expiration date
To count the days between today and each expiration date in Excel by formula - Create date range from two dates
This tutorial provides a formula with TEXT function to create a date range based on two dates in text format in Excel. - Create weekly date range
In this tutorial, it provides a formula to quickly get the weekly date range in Excel.
Relative Functions
- Excel WEEKNUM Function
Returns the week number of the given date in a year - Excel WORKDAY Function
Adds workdays to the given start date and returns a workday - Excel MONTH Function
The MONTH is used to get the month as integer number (1 to 12) from date - Excel DAY Function
DAY function gets the day as a number (1 to 31) from a date - Excel NOW Function
Get the current time and date
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