Forum Discussion

Copper Contributor

Feb 02, 2023

Solved

datedif function

Hi I am using a MacBook Air. When trying to use the datedif function to subtract two dates, it prevents me from selecting the second date, it returns the following error "There's a problem with th...

Excel on Mac

Riny_van_Eekelen
Feb 02, 2023
Rajen66 On a MBA myself. No problems with DATEDIF. But I wonder why you want to use that function at all. It's not an official Excel function and exists only for compatibility reasons with older spreadsheet programs (like Lotus-1-2-3).

If the earlier date is in A1 and the later date in B1 you can just use:
=B1-A1 and format the cell as a number, in stead of =DATEDIF(A1,B1,"d")

Riny_van_Eekelen

Platinum Contributor

Feb 02, 2023

Rajen66 On a MBA myself. No problems with DATEDIF. But I wonder why you want to use that function at all. It's not an official Excel function and exists only for compatibility reasons with older spreadsheet programs (like Lotus-1-2-3).

If the earlier date is in A1 and the later date in B1 you can just use:

=B1-A1 and format the cell as a number, in stead of =DATEDIF(A1,B1,"d")

sandipand

Copper Contributor

Aug 31, 2023

Riny_van_Eekelen What If I want to calculate the months' gap between two dates instead of days?

SergeiBaklan
Diamond Contributor
Aug 31, 2023
sandipand

Or

=12*( YEAR(B1)-YEAR(A1) ) + MONTH(B1)-MONTH(A1)-1 + ( DAY(B1) >= DAY(A1) )
HansVogelaar
MVP
Aug 31, 2023
sandipand

Use "m" instead of "d". With start date in A1 and end date in B1:

=DATEDIF(A1, B1, "m")

or if you use comma as decimal separator:

=DATEDIF(A1; B1; "m")