Quick Guide to Convert Years to Days or Months to Days in Excel

Time Conversion in Excel

Date and Time in Excel

Excel does not treat date and time as text; instead, it stores them as numbers. Each interger repesents a date, like 1 is stored as January 1, 1990. This makes date calculations easier and quicker. To be able to work with dates in Excel, it is important to understand this concept.

Need for Time Conversion

The following points are the reasons why converting years to days is useful:

• It allows tracking and comparing timeframes.
• It allows the calculation of duration in project management.
• It helps in financial analysis.
• It provides uniformity in time calculations.

 

How to Convert Years to Days

DATE Function

The DATE function in Excel is your go-to tool when you need precision in handling dates, including converting years and months to days. It combines individual year, month, and day components to create a date serial number, which Excel recognizes and can be formatted as a date. For example, to represent the 28th of April, 2015, you can use this formula:

This function is particularly useful when you know the exact date components and want to make sure that Excel interprets them correctly as a date.

DATEDIF Function

The DATEDIF function is a powerful, lesser-known function used to calculate the time difference between two dates in Excel. The time difference can be in years, monthss or days. This can be done by adjusting the unit argument in the formula.

To calculate the difference in the number of complete years.

To calculate the difference in remaining months after complete years.

To calculate the difference in remaining days after complete months.

It is important to note that Excel does not show the DATEDIF function in its built-in function list or in ribbon help.

 

Dynamic DATE Formula Usage

You can make your DATE function dynamic by combining it with other functions like TODAY or NOW. This will update your date to the current date automatically.

Now, use this date with NETWORKDAYS.INT to get the timeline of a project.

By making the calculations dynamic, you can make sure that there is no need for manual updates.

 

Practical Example

Below is a practical example of using Excel date functions to calculate project deadlines.

STEP 1: Enter start date and duration in months for each task.

STEP 2: Use the EDATE function to calculate the end date.

This is how you can efficiently use Excel to get a project’s end date.

 

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

Invalid Date Formats

Invalid date formats can cause headaches when you’re trying to sort, filter, or perform calculations on dates in Excel. If you encounter a situation where Excel can’t recognize your dates, follow these steps to troubleshoot:

• Use Find and Replace feature to replace delimiters like dots with slashes in dates.

• Use the SUBSTITUTE function to replace dots in dates with slashes.

• Check that Excel is set to recognize dates in your local format through the Advanced setting

 

Tips & Tricks

Streamlining Data Conversion

• Make sure to format the date properly to get accurate results.
• Use Fill handle or ARRAYFORMULA to apply a particular formula to a range of cells.
• Create macros for the task that you repeatedly work on. This will allow you to complete that task with a click of a button.

Date Functions in Excel

The following functions are key functions that you should know when working on time-based calculations:

• EDATE: It is used to add or subtract months to a date.
• DAYS: It provides the number of days between two dates.
• YEARFRAC: It calculates the fraction of the year between two dates.

 

FAQs

How to convert years to days without making any mistakes?

To avoid mistakes when converting years to days in Excel, make sure you use the correct number of days per year (365 or 366 for leap years), apply formulas consistently, and double-check your calculations. It’s also wise to use Excel functions like DATE and DAYS, which automatically account for leap years, thus reducing human error.

Can Excel Automatically Account for Leap Years?

Yes, Excel can automatically account for leap years when performing date calculations. Using functions like DATE and YEARFRAC considers whether a year is a leap year, adjusting the days in February as necessary.

How to convert a date from years to days in Excel?

You can use the YEARFRAC function to calculate the difference between two dates in years. You can then multiply the result by 365 to convert it to days.

What is the formula for year days?

To calculate year days in Excel, you can use the formula =DATE(YEAR(A2),12,31)-A2 which subtracts a given date (in cell A2) from the last day of that year, providing the number of days remaining in the year.

How to convert numbers to years and days in Excel?

In Excel, to convert a number representing days into years and days, divide the number by 365 and use the MOD function to find the remaining days. Use the formula =INT(A2/365) & " years, " & MOD(A2, 365) & " days" where A2 is the cell containing the number of days.