How to Use Excel TODAY Function? -> Excel 24x7

Written by excel24x7 | Published 2025/04/01
Tech Story Tags: excel-tutorial | today-function-in-excel | excel | microsoft-excel | excel-hacks | learn-excel | mastering-excel | excel24x7

TLDRThe **TODAY** function in Excel returns the **current date** and updates automatically whenever the worksheet is opened or changed. This function does not require any arguments and you can apply a date format to display the result correctly. You may need to use the NOW function if you need both the current date and current time.via the TL;DR App

Today Function: A Brief

The TODAY function in Excel returns the current date and updates automatically whenever the worksheet is opened or changed. This function does not require any arguments and you can apply a date format to display the result correctly. You may need to use the NOW function if you need both the current date and current time.

Objective

Value Returned by function

Aim to get the current date

Today Function will return a valid Excel date in serial numbers.

Today Function: A Syntax

=TODAY()

The TODAY function returns the current date and updates automatically whenever the worksheet is refreshed. The result is a standard Excel date and to display it correctly, apply a date format. You can also customize the format as needed as shown in the below image.

Using Today Function with Practical Examples:

Formula

Result

Current day of the week

=TEXT(TODAY(),"DDDD")

Thursday

Current day of the week

=TEXT(TODAY(),"MMMM")

March

Current month name

="Q"&ROUNDUP(MONTH(TODAY())/3,0)&"-"&YEAR(TODAY())

Q1-2025

Current quarter

=TODAY()+5*365

12 March 2030

5 years from today

=IF(MOD(YEAR(TODAY()),4)=0,"Yes","No")

No

Check if current year is a leap year

=EOMONTH(TODAY(),0)

31 March 2025

Last day of the current month

=EOMONTH(TODAY(),0)+1

01 April 2025

First day of next month

=EOMONTH(TODAY(),1)

30 April 2025

Last day of next month

=DATE(YEAR(TODAY())+1,1,1)

01 January 2026

First day of next year

=DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),12,31)

31 December 2025

Last day of the current year

Practical today function formula with output results as examples.

Find the Next Friday from Today:

If you want to schedule a meeting every Friday, and you need to find the next Friday from today (present day). You can use the below formula.

=TODAY()+MOD(6-WEEKDAY(TODAY()),7)

Formula to find the next Friday and Tuesday from today using TODAY function

Number Value

Day Name

1

Sunday

2

Monday

3

Tuesday

4

Wednesday

5

Thursday

6

Friday

7

Saturday

=TODAY()+MOD(3-WEEKDAY(TODAY()),7), you can change the number to check for the different days in the coming week.

Calculate AGE using Today function:

You can use the today function along with the year function to calculate the AGE of the person. to do this, you must need to enter the proper date values.

Using the below formula to calculate the age from birthday with TODAY Function. The formula to do this is,

=YEAR(TODAY())-YEAR(C4)

or

=DATEDIF(C4,TODAY(),"Y")

or

=IF(ISNUMBER(C4), DATEDIF(C4,TODAY(),"Y"), "Invalid Date")

Display Time along with Today Function:

you can use the time function along with the Today function to print current date with the time.

 =TEXT(NOW(), "DD-MMM-YYYY HH:MM AM/PM")

The output of the above formula is ,

Formula to print current date with time using TODAY Function

Other formulas with time function to print today with time output with multiple formats,

Formula

Result

=TEXT(TODAY(), "DD-MMM-YYYY")

13-Mar-2025

=TEXT(TODAY(), "DDDD, DD-MMM-YYYY")

Thursday, 13-Mar-2025

=TEXT(TODAY(), "MMMM YYYY")

March 2025

=TEXT(TODAY(), "YYYY-MM-DD")

2025-03-13

=TEXT(NOW(), "DD-MMM-YYYY HH:MM AM/PM")

13-Mar-2025 04:13 PM

=TEXT(TODAY()+1, "DD-MMM-YYYY")

14-Mar-2025

=TEXT(TODAY()-1, "DD-MMM-YYYY")

12-Mar-2025

That’s it.


Written by excel24x7 | A professional Excel Tutorial website!
Published by HackerNoon on 2025/04/01