Excel Date and Time Formulas Guide
Excel stores dates as serial numbers. Display is formatting; calculations use the serial.
=TODAY()
=DATE(2026,9,10)
=EDATE(A2,1)
=NETWORKDAYS(A2,B2)
=TEXT(A2,"yyyy-mm-dd")Common problems
- Dates show as numbers → date serial fix
- ##### on dates → column width
- Text dates break math → DATEVALUE or Text to Columns