This tutorial demonstrates various ways of entering dates in Excel. See how to insert today's date and current time as static time stamp or dynamic values, how to auto populate a column or row with weekdays, and how to auto fill random dates in Excel.
There are several ways to add dates in Excel depending on what exactly you want to do. For example, do you want to enter a today's date in some report or invoice? Or, perhaps you want to insert a date in Excel that will update automatically and always display the current date and time? Or, maybe you want to auto fill weekdays or input random dates in your worksheet?
In a moment, you will learn all these and a few more date entering techniques. If you are curious to know how Excel stores dates and times, please check out part 1 of this tutorial - Excel date format.
You can type a date in an Excel cell in a variety of ways, for example 1/1/2015, or 1-Jan-2015, or 1-Jan, or January 1, 2015. When you type something like that in a cell, Microsoft Excel knows you are entering a date and automatically applies the date format to that cell. Quite often, Excel formats the newly inserted date according to your Windows default date settings, but sometimes it may leave it exactly as you typed.
The most obvious visual indication that Excel has recognized the date you've entered is its right-alignment in a cell as opposed to left-aligned text values.
If Excel has failed to recognize your input as a date and you see it left-justified in a cell, try inserting a date in some other format close to your default short or long date formats. These formats are marked with an asterisk (*) in the Format Cell dialog window and you can quickly access them on the Excel ribbon (Home tab > Number group):
You will be able to easily change the date format later via the Format Cells dialog that opens on the Ctrl + 1 shortcut. For more details, please see How to change the date format in Excel.
In Microsoft Excel, you can input the current date and time either as a static or dynamic value.
To begin with, let's define what timestamp is. Timestamping is entering a "static date" that won't change with the course of time or when the spreadsheet is recalculated.
So, if your goal is to enter the current date and/or time as a static value that won't automatically update the next day, you can use one of the following shortcuts:
If you want to input today's date in Excel that will always remain up to date, use one of the following Excel date functions:
=TODAY()
- inserts the today date in a cell.=NOW()
- inserts the today date and current time in a cell.Unlike Excel date shortcuts, the TODAY and NOW functions will always return today's date and current time.
When using the Excel date functions, please keep in mind that:
This section addresses a handful of comments that have been posted on this page with one and the same question: "What formula do I use to enter a timestamp in my Excel sheet without it changing every time the worksheet is reopened or recalculated?"
For starters, I'd like to note that I'm very hesitant to post this solution because it involves circular references, and they should be treated with great care. Anyway, here goes the formula…
Let's say you have a list of items in column A, and as soon as a certain item is shipped, you enter "Yes" in the Delivery column, which is column B. Once "Yes" is in there, you want to have the current date and time automatically inserted in the same row in column C as a static unchangeable time stamp.
To do this, we are going to use the following nested IF formula with circular references in the second IF function:
=IF(B2="yes", IF(C2="" ,NOW(), C2), "")
Where B is the Delivery column, and C2 is the cell where you input the formula and where the time stamp will eventually appear.
In the above formula, the first IF function checks cell B2 for the word "Yes" (or any other text you supply to the formula), and if the specified text is there, it runs the second IF function, otherwise returns an empty string. And the second IF is a circular formula that makes the NOW function return the current day and time if C2 doesn't have a value in it already, thus saving all existing time stamps.
If instead of checking for any specific word, you want the timestamp to appear when you put anything in the specified cell (that could be any number, text or date), then have the first IF function to check for a non-empty cell, like this:
=IF(B2<>"", IF(C2="" ,NOW(), C2), "")
If you need to insert dates in a range of cells, you can let Excel "auto date" a column or row by using the AutoFill feature.
To automatically fill a column or row with an incrementing date series that increases by one day, you use Excel's AutoFill feature in the usual way:
There are two ways to automatically populate the selected range of cells with weekdays, months or years.
If you've tried a second solution described above, you probably noticed the Series option near the bottom, which provides a few more auto date features. One of them is inserting every 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. day, month or year in a worksheet. Let's try this now:
Regrettably, Microsoft Excel does not provide an option to enter random dates automatically. Luckily, AbleBits Random Generator for Excel does :)
You simply select a range of cells where you want to autofill dates in a random order, and switch to the Random Generator's pane where you specify:
Then you click the Generate button, and have the selected range populated with random dates.
Apart from dates, the Random Generator add-in can auto fill your worksheets with numbers, Boolean vales and custom lists. If you think this is something that would be useful in your work, you can get it as part of our Ultimate Suite for Excel that includes 60+ time-saving tools and over 300 useful features.
If you are setting up a spreadsheet for other users, and want to make sure they enter dates right, it may be a good idea to insert a drop-down calendar in a worksheet. Your users will be able to fill in dates in a mouse click and you will be 100% confident that all dates are entered in an appropriate format.
If you are using a 32-bit version of Excel, you can use Microsoft's Date Picker control. For the detailed instructions, please see How to insert calendar in Excel (Date Picker control).
If you are using a 64-bit version of Excel 2016, Excel 2013, Microsoft's Date Picker control won't do. In this case, consider using one of the third-party calendars, for example our own one :)
For more options, please see third-party drop-down calendars for Excel.
This is how you insert date in Excel. I am hopeful these date entering techniques, shortcuts, functions and Excel auto date features have proved useful to you. Anyway, thank you for reading!
294 responses to "How to insert dates in Excel - add today's date, auto fill a column with dates"
Changing Year but Date has no change in daily.
Can you enter a start date and end date which will then insert the range of dates on the worksheet? I’m trying to add school dates for a half term.
WHEN IN GIVE INTERY IN NEXT SHELL IT DATE FORMATE NOT WORKING
Hello there, I am wanting to auto generate the current date and time "NOW" function every time I enter data into another cell.
Example: If I enter data into cell A3 I would like it to automatically generate "Now" function into cell B3 as I continue to enter data in the A column.
Did I miss something that you already covered?
How do I autofill down a row from most recent month to prior month? For example, May 2019 in top cell of the row and then autofill for April 2019, March 2019, etc. in cells underneath the top cell?
How to make timestamp for a cell created date (when a value is entered in cell) and last modified date (when the value in the cell is changed)?
I only found formula which record the workbook create/last mod date.
when i open excel sheet automatically show on the current date! how did
the date will be the previous cell after data entry in next cell
when i put a new date is showing that date must be between 1st-Oct-2018 and 30-Sep-2019
why?
Hi,
I want to enter a date in cell A4 and it to auto populate in B4 with the date 28 days in advance so: A4 01/01/2019 - B4 29/01/19. How can i do this automatically without having to go to fill - series every time?
Very helpful! Thank you!
Send always new formulas in my email
I want to add a date in cell A14 on one sheet, then auto populate, plus one day, in cell a14 on every sheet following. Can you help me?
Hi will you be advise how can you track completion date(fixed date) in an IF function i.e. if(A3="Completed",*fixed date to track when completed,"On-going")
Help would be much appreciated
Hi,
i want to make one column to change the text(for eg: Active or Expired) according to the current date.
can have a formula or format for this?
Hi,
i want to make one column text eg:Active or Expired according to current date in another column.
is there any formula or format?
Hello Mubashir!
Please use the following formula
=IF(TODAY()>A1,"Expired","Active")
If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.
Sir I want renewal date auto fill by drag ., For example- i have in A column 01/04/2015, 30/01/2013, 21/05/2018, it result show in column B is 31/03/2020, 29/01/2020, 20/05/2020 please give me the formula
in excel how do i enter a RANDOM date - at present only ####### appears after i enter a date and press return
Hello Chris!
I’m sorry but your task is not entirely clear to me.
Please describe your problem in more detail.
Explain how you enter a random date. Do you write it manually or use some kind of formula?
In this case, I will try to help you.
Thanks . Good Topic . I had learn 2 more things from here
Hi I need a date to auto populate when I put a name in the adjacent cell. I am going to put a name or something in a1 and I need a2 to populate a the date automatically.
Hello!
I hope you have studied the recommendations in the above tutorial.
I think this section has an answer.
one question!
how insert date automatically in Excel every day change it automatically date?
i want your help please...
i want to enter the specific month and year on A3, and i want to automatic fill A7 with the next month of A3, how will i do it?
Thanks
Hello!
You can add or subtract months to a date with Excel EDATE. See this example.
date formula not working
Hello!
Please specify what you were trying to find, what formula you used and what problem or error occurred. Give an example of the source data and the expected result.
It’ll help me understand it better and find a solution for you.
I have JAN2021 sheet with columns labeled with dates D2=01-JAN, E2=02-JAN, F2=03-JAN until AG2=30-JAN then rows C4=John, C5=Albert, C6=Mark until C58=Steve with D4:AG58 marked either as x or v. Another sheet called Dates with rows C2=John, C3=Albert until C56=Steve and columns F2:AI56 blank. Question is how can I auto-populate the date in F2:AI56 from Jan2021 sheet when I enter v as a value in D4:AG58?
JAN2021
D2=01-Jan
C4=John
D4= v
Dates
C2=John
F2=autopopulate 01-Jan