Getting the Current Date and Time in Excel

Excel is a powerful tool for working with data, and one of the common tasks is to get the current date and time in a spreadsheet. This can be useful for creating activity logs, tracking deadlines, calculating durations, and more. In this article, we will explain the basic theory and procedures of getting the current date and time in Excel, and provide a comprehensive explanation with examples and tables.

Excel stores dates and times as serial numbers, which are the number of days since January 1, 1900, for dates, and the fraction of a day for times. For example, the date January 1, 2021 is stored as 44197, and the time 12:00 PM is stored as 0.5. This allows Excel to perform calculations and comparisons with dates and times.

To display the date and time in a human-readable format, Excel uses formatting codes that specify how to show the year, month, day, hour, minute, and second. For example, the format code “mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss” will display the date and time as “01/01/2021 12:00:00”.

Procedures

There are two types of formulas to get the current date and time in Excel: dynamic and static. Dynamic formulas will update every time the workbook is opened or recalculated, while static formulas will insert the date and time at the moment they are entered and will not change.

Dynamic Formulas

To get the current date and time in Excel using dynamic formulas, we can use the following functions:

• =TODAY() returns the current date as a serial number.
• =NOW() returns the current date and time as a serial number.

These functions do not take any arguments, and they can be formatted to show the desired date and time format. For example, if we enter =TODAY() in cell A1 and format it as “mm/dd/yyyy”, it will show the current date as “01/01/2021”. If we enter =NOW() in cell B1 and format it as “hh:mm:ss”, it will show the current time as “12:00:00”.

Static Formulas

To get the current date and time in Excel using static formulas, we can use the following keyboard shortcuts:

• Ctrl + ; inserts the current date as a serial number.
• Ctrl + Shift + ; inserts the current date and time as a serial number.

These shortcuts will insert the date and time at the moment they are pressed, and they will not change unless they are edited manually. They can also be formatted to show the desired date and time format. For example, if we press Ctrl + ; in cell C1 and format it as “mm/dd/yyyy”, it will show the current date as “01/01/2021”. If we press Ctrl + Shift + ; in cell D1 and format it as “hh:mm:ss”, it will show the current time as “12:00:00”.

Explanation

To illustrate the use of getting the current date and time in Excel, let us create a scenario where we want to track the progress of a project with multiple tasks and deadlines. We want to record the start date and time, the due date and time, the actual completion date and time, and the status of each task. We also want to calculate the duration and the difference between the due date and the actual completion date for each task.

To do this, we can use the following steps:

1. Create a table with the following columns: Task, Start Date, Start Time, Due Date, Due Time, Completion Date, Completion Time, Duration, Difference, and Status.
2. Enter the task names and the start and due dates and times for each task. We can use the Ctrl + ; and Ctrl + Shift + ; shortcuts to insert the current date and time for the start date and time columns, or we can enter them manually. We can format the date and time columns as “mm/dd/yyyy” and “hh:mm:ss”, respectively.
3. Enter the completion date and time for each task when they are done. We can use the Ctrl + ; and Ctrl + Shift + ; shortcuts to insert the current date and time for the completion date and time columns, or we can enter them manually. We can format the date and time columns as “mm/dd/yyyy” and “hh:mm:ss”, respectively.
4. Calculate the duration for each task by subtracting the start date and time from the completion date and time. We can use the formula =E2+C2-B2-A2 in cell F2 and copy it down to the other cells in the column. We can format the duration column as “[h]:mm:ss” to show the total hours, minutes, and seconds.
5. Calculate the difference between the due date and time and the completion date and time for each task by subtracting the due date and time from the completion date and time. We can use the formula =G2+E2-D2-C2 in cell H2 and copy it down to the other cells in the column. We can format the difference column as “[h]:mm:ss” to show the total hours, minutes, and seconds. A positive value means the task was completed before the deadline, and a negative value means the task was completed after the deadline.
6. Update the status for each task based on the difference column. We can use the formula =IF(H2>0,"Early","Late") in cell I2 and copy it down to the other cells in the column. This formula will return “Early” if the difference is positive, and “Late” if the difference is negative.

The table will look something like this:

Other Approaches

There are other ways to get the current date and time in Excel, such as using the DATE and TIME functions, or using the TEXT function to format the date and time as text. However, these approaches have some limitations and drawbacks, such as:

• The DATE and TIME functions require three arguments each: year, month, and day for the DATE function, and hour, minute, and second for the TIME function. This means that we have to enter the date and time components separately, which can be tedious and error-prone.
• The TEXT function converts the date and time to text, which means that we cannot perform calculations or comparisons with them. For example, we cannot subtract two dates or times that are formatted as text, or use them in conditional formatting or data validation rules.

Therefore, we recommend using the dynamic and static formulas described above, as they are more convenient and flexible for getting the current date and time in Excel.