Excel DAYS Function

Summary

The Excel DAYS function returns the number of days between two dates. With a start date in A1 and end date in B1, =DAYS(B1,A1) will return the days between the two dates.

Purpose

Get days between dates

Return value

A number representing days.

Syntax

=DAYS (end_date, start_date)

Arguments

end_date - The end date.
start_date - The start date.

Usage notes

The DAYS function returns the number of days between two dates. With a start date in A1 and end date in A2,

=DAYS(A2,A1)

Will return the same result as:

=A2-A1

Unlike the simple formula above, the DAYS function can also handle dates in text format, as long as the date is recognized by Excel. For example:

=DAYS("7/15/2016","7/1/2016") // returns 14

The DAYS function does not take into account any time value that's part of the date.