DATEDIF and NETWORKDAYS in Google Sheets: date difference in days, months and years (2024)

Example 1. Count all days

I have a small table to track some orders. All of them have been shipped in the first half of August – Shipping date – which is going to be my start date. There's also an approximate delivery date – Due date.

I'm going to calculate days – "D" – between shipping and due dates to see how long it takes for items to arrive. Here is the formula I should use:

=DATEDIF(B2, C2, "D")

I enter the DATEDIF formula to D2 and then copy it down the column to apply to other rows.

Example 2. Count days ignoring months

Imagine there are a few months between two dates:

How do you count only days as if they belonged to the same month? That's right: by ignoring full months that have passed. DATEDIF calculates this automatically when you use the "MD" unit:

=DATEDIF(A2, B2, "MD")

The function subtracts elapsed months and counts remaining days.

Example 3. Count days ignoring years

Another unit – "YD" – will aid for when dates have more than a year between them:

=DATEDIF(A2, B2, "YD")

The formula will subtract years first, and then calculate remaining days as if they belonged to the same year.

Example 1. NETWORKDAYS function

The first one is called NETWORKDAYS. This function calculates the number of working days between two dates excluding weekends (Saturday and Sunday) and even holidays if necessary:

=NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays])

• start_date – a date used as a starting point. Required.

  Note. If this date is not a holiday, it is counted as a working day.

• end_date – a date used as an endpoint. Required.

  Note. If this date is not a holiday, it is counted as a working day.

• holidays – this one is optional for when you need to point out specific holidays. It must be a range of dates or numbers representing dates.

To illustrate how it works, I will add a list of holidays that take place in-between shipping and due dates:

So, column B is my start date, columns C – end date. Dates in column E are the holidays to consider. Here is how the formula should look:

=NETWORKDAYS(B2, C2, $E$2:$E$4)

Tip. If you're going to copy the formula to other cells, use absolute cells references for holidays to avoid errors or incorrect results. Or consider building an array formula instead.

Have you noticed how the number of days decreased compared to the DATEDIF formulas? Because now the function automatically subtracts all Saturdays, Sundays, and two holidays that take place on Friday and Monday.

Note. Unlike DATEDIF in Google Sheets, NETWORKDAYS counts start_day and end_day as workdays unless they are holidays. Hence, D7 returns 1.

Example 2. NETWORKDAYS.INTL for Google Sheets

If you have a custom weekend schedule, you will benefit from another function: NETWORKDAYS.INTL. It lets you count working days in Google Sheets based on personally set weekends:

=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(start_date, end_date, [weekend], [holidays])

• start_date – a date used as a starting point. Required.
• end_date – a date used as an endpoint. Required.

  Note. NETWORKDAYS.INTL in Google Sheets also counts start_day and end_day as workdays unless they are holidays.

• weekend – this one is optional. If omitted, Saturday and Sunday are considered to be weekends. But you can alter that using two ways:
  • Masks.

    Tip. This way is perfect for when your days off are scattered all over the week.

    Mask is a seven-digit pattern of 1's and 0's. 1 stands for a weekend, 0 for a workday. The first digit in the pattern is always Monday, the last one – Sunday.

    For example, "1100110" means that you work on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

    Note. The mask must be put in double-quotes.

  • Numbers.

    Use one-digit numbers (1-7) that denote a pair of set weekends:

    Number	Weekend
    1	Saturday, Sunday
    2	Sunday, Monday
    3	Monday, Tuesday
    4	Tuesday, Wednesday
    5	Wednesday, Thursday
    6	Thursday, Friday
    7	Friday, Saturday

    Or work with two-digit numbers (11-17) that denote one day to rest within a week:

    Number	Weekend day
    11	Sunday
    12	Monday
    13	Tuesday
    14	Wednesday
    15	Thursday
    16	Friday
    17	Saturday

• holidays – it is also optional and is used to specify holidays.

This function may seem complicated because of all those numbers, but I encourage you to give it a try.

First, just get a clear understanding of your days off. Let's make it Sunday and Monday. Then, decide on the way to indicate your weekends.

If you go with a mask, it will be like this – 1000001:

=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(B2, C2, "1000001")

But since I have two weekend days in a row, I can use a number from the tables above, 2 in my case:

=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(B2, C2, 2)

Then simply add the last argument – refer to holidays in column E, and the formula is ready:

=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(B2, C2, 2, $E$2:$E$4)

Example 1. The number of full months between two dates

The drill is the same: the start_date goes first, followed by the end_date and "M" – that stands for months – as a final argument:

=DATEDIF(A2, B2, "M")

Example 2. The number of months ignoring years

You may not need to count months throughout all years in-between start and end dates. And DATEDIF lets you do that.

Just use the "YM" unit and the formula will subtract whole years first, and then count the number of months between dates:

=DATEDIF(A2, B2, "YM")