Excel NOW Function: Real-Time Date & Time in Your Sheets

The function now in Excel returns the current date and time of your system clock.

Now function: a brief

The function now in Excel returns the Current date and time Depending on the system clock of your computer. The function will now update the Recalcle worksheet or when the file is open. It can be useful for the following scenarios:

• Journalization timestampes
• Updates follow -up tasks
• Calculation of the periods or deadlines of the present moment.

Now function: a syntax

=NOW() // Returns the current date and time from your device clock.

Now function: introduced into

The function now has been introduced in Excel 1.0 and is an integrated function. If you want to recreate the operation of the NOW function using formulas, you will have to manually combine the functions as indicated below.

=TODAY() + (HOUR(NOW())/24 + MINUTE(NOW())/1440)

By combining functions like TODAY,, HOUR,, NOWAnd MINUTE With mathematical operations, you can get the current date and time depending on your system clock. However, this type of formula is static. Once he returns a result, he is do not update Whenever you route the file, unlike the NOW Function, which updates with the current date and time each time the sheet is open or recalculated.

By default, a formula can only display the date or only time in a cell. To display the date and time, right -click the cell and choose the Format cells option. In the number tab, choose CustomThen in the Type field, select the DD-MM-Yyyy HH: MMand click on the ALL RIGHT button.

Now the content in the cell will be updated with the date and time value as indicated in the image below.

The formatting cells display both the date and the time.

Examples of use of the function now with other nested functions:

In the example below, I included 13 different scenarios showing how to use the NOW function with others nested functions. Each case includes the formulaTHE to go outand a brief explanation For clarity.

Explanation of the example:

• Case 1: The formula checks if the current time is before noon or in the afternoon. If the hour (now ()) is less than 12 years, it returns “morning” or otherwise, it shows “the afternoon” as an output value.
• Case 2: Eomsth returns the last day of the current month of the month. By subtracting today (), the formula shows how many days are in the month. Based on the clock of the current device, it can come back 6 days to play.
• Case 3: The formula text (now (), “HH: MM: SS”) displays only the up to timeby deleting the date part and showing it in HH: MM: SS format.
• Case 4: He uses the weekly function to check if today is a weekday or a weekend. If the result is 6 or 7, it comes back “Weekend“Or otherwise, it comes back”Day of the week“Like the release.
• Case 5: This formula calculates the total hours spent since midnight using the time (now ()) + minute (now ()) / 60. The result is shown as a decimal, as 12.38.
• Case 6: It calculates the number of hours that remain during the day by subtracting the total of the hours spent from 24.
• Case 7: This checks if the current time is in typical office hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) using SI and and with time (now ()). If it's true, it comes back “Yes“Like the release.
• Case 8: The formula adds 15 minutes Currently using now () + time (0.15,0), useful for defining future reminders or triggers.
• Case 9: He subtracts 2 hours of the current time with now () – time (2.0,0), showing a time 2 hours earlier.
• Case 10: Text (now (), “DDDD”) returns the full name of the day, as “THURSDAY“, What is useful in headache or dynamic reports.
• Case 11: Floor (now (), “1:00”) runs the up to time to the closest hourRemoving the minutes and seconds.
• Case 12: The formula checks if today is a Monday Using the week (now (), 2). If the result is 1, it returns “yes”.
• Case 13: Second (now ()) extracts the second current value of the time.

Functions used in examples:

That's it. This tutorial was initially published on the Excel function now how to use?