If you want to get a matrix result from this, highlight the cell range where you want to put it first. Don’t type the curly bracket signs yourself because that won’t activate the array form in your formula. We use the array formula form by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Enter (Control + Shift + Enter in Mac) buttons after writing the formula. We need them because we will input cell ranges in a subtraction formula that usually processes individual number inputs. Those signs are for the array formula symbol. Input the matrix with numbers to subtract first in your formula, before the minus sign.Īs you can see in the writing above, there are curly bracket signs at the beginning and end of the formula. To do subtraction which involves two matrixes, we need to input the cell ranges of those two matrixes in our formula. If you want to learn deeper about DATEDIF, see the tutorial that discusses the formula specifically here.Ī matrix that contains numbers is created in Excel using a cell range. That is because DATEDIF will also calculate the month and/or year difference too.

If you use a “D” or “YD” unit in the DATEDIF, then the result will become much bigger.

As a result, the result is 7, which is the difference between 30 and 23 (the day numbers from the two dates). Because of that, DATEDIF will subtract the day numbers from the two dates only without considering the month and year differences. But, if you use a “YM” unit input, then the result becomes 3 (because DATEDIF will only calculate the month difference and ignore the year difference).Īs an example to make it clearer, here is the writing and result example of DATEDIF in excel.Īs you can see in the DATEDIF writing example, we use “MD” unit input to calculate the date difference. Because of that, 12 months will be added to the result). That is because DATEDIF also considers the year numbers from those two dates (the month difference is 3 but because it considers the year difference also which is 1.

If you use an “M” unit input, then the result will be 15. That is, of course, if you use the unit which includes, not excludes, the month and/or year numbers.Īs an example, let’s say your earlier date is 12-02-2020 and your later date is 14-05-2021.

The meaning of including month and/or year in the additional note column is DATEDIF will calculate those variables if needed. Here is the list of all the unit inputs you can give in DATEDIF and their brief explanation.

Subtraction formula in excel