Hence, each date will include a fraction. Sometimes when importing dates into Excel the dates are imported as dates and times. If you use the wrong format, then what is displayed can appear different to what is in the cell, and this can confuse users. When dealing with times and durations such as hours and minutes, you are working with fractions (decimals).Īnother important concept to grasp with dates and times is that what is displayed in a cell is determined by the format applied to that cell. Times – times are treated as fractions of a day. You are, in effect, subtracting one number from another. You don’t need to know the underlying number, but knowing that it is a numeral helps to explain how you can subtract one date from another to arrive at the number of days between the two dates. Each subsequent day has been allocated a sequential number. Excel’s calendar started on 1 January 1900. People will often struggle with date and time calculations in Excel, until they learn how it treats dates and times.ĭates – each date is a number.
