How to use the TODAY function
The TODAY function returns the Excel date (serial number) of the current date.
Warning! This function is volatile meaning it recalculates every time the workbook recalculates.
This may slow down your workbook calculations considerably if there are many formulas that depend on the TODAY function.
Excel Function Syntax
TODAY()
Arguments
The TODAY function has no arguments
Comments
The Excel date the TODAY function returns is a serial number that Excel recognizes and can be filtered, sorted and used in other date calculations.
Excel dates are actually serial numbers formatted as dates, 1/1/1900 is 1 and 2/2/2018 is 43133. There are 43132 days between 2/2/2018 and 1/1/1900.
You can try this yourself, type 10000 in a cell, press CTRL + 1 and change the cell's formatting to date, click OK. The cell now shows 5/18/1927.
This extensive function reference list provides detailed information including syntax, arguments, return values, and examples for many of the functions used in Excel formulas. Click on headers to sort table.
Articles with the 'TODAY' Function
The following 4 articles have formulas that contain the TODAY function.
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La Thăng asks: I want to find day if given date and week, for example : if given Tuesday, 32th […]
Functions in 'Date and Time'
The TODAY function function is one of many functions in the 'Date and Time' category.
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How to use the WEEKDAY function
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The YEAR function converts a date to a number representing the year in the date. The number is between 1900 […]
How to use the YEARFRAC function
The YEARFRAC function returns the fraction of the year based on the number of whole days between a start date […]
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