The TODAY() Function in Microsoft Excel

Last week, I did a customized Microsoft Excel course for a client in Mississauga. Essentially, it was a Level 1 course with expanded coverage of functions and a few additional topics.

At one point in the course, we were working with the TODAY() function in Excel to display the current date. If you’re not familiar with the TODAY() function, it returns the current date formatted as a date. To see it in action, open Microsoft Excel, click in any cell in and type =today() then press Enter. Voila! You’ll see today’s date (according to your computer’s clock).

One of the ladies in the class became very animated and asked, “Can I use the TODAY() function to calculate someone’s age?” I told her that she could and provided the following example:

In columns A and B, I typed in a few names and birthdates. In column C, I displayed the current date using the Today() function. In cell D4, I entered the following formula: =C4-B4 and pressed Enter.

Keep in mind that Excel returns the difference between these dates in days. To convert this value to years, you’d need to enter =(C4-B4)/365.25.

We’re getting closer but now the person’s age has a bunch of decimal places. To eliminate the decimal places, use the INT() function. INT() rounds a number down to the nearest integer (whole number). The final version of our formula will look like this: =INT((C4-B4)/365.25).