Why date handling is common in business in Excel - Test Your Understanding

Practice - 5 Tasks

1fill in blank

easy

Complete the formula to get the current date in Excel.

Excel

=TODAY([1])

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

ANOW()

B()

C[]

D{}

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Leaving out the parentheses

Using square or curly brackets instead of parentheses

The TODAY function in Excel does not take any arguments, so it must be called with empty parentheses ().

2fill in blank

medium

Complete the formula to calculate the number of days between two dates in cells A1 and B1.

Excel

=B1 [1] A1

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A+

B-

C*

D/

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Adding the dates instead of subtracting

Multiplying or dividing dates

Subtracting the earlier date (A1) from the later date (B1) gives the number of days between them.

3fill in blank

hard

Fix the error in the formula to add 7 days to the date in cell A1.

Excel

=A1 [1] 7

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A*

B+

C-

D/

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using multiplication or division instead of addition

Using subtraction instead of addition

To add days to a date, you use the plus sign + in Excel.

4fill in blank

hard

Fill both blanks to calculate the number of full months between dates in A1 and B1 using the DATEDIF function.

Excel

=DATEDIF(A1, B1, [1] [2])

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

A"M"

B"D"

C"Y"

D"MD"

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using wrong units like "D" or "Y" for months

Not putting the unit in quotes

The DATEDIF function requires the start date, end date, and a unit in quotes. To get full months, use "M" as the unit. The second blank is a distractor and should be empty or ignored.

5fill in blank

hard

Fill all three blanks to create a formula that extracts the year, month, and day from the date in cell A1.

Excel

=YEAR([1]) & "-" & MONTH([2]) & "-" & DAY([3])

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

AA1

BB1

CC1

DTODAY()

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using different cells for year, month, and day

Using TODAY() instead of the date cell

The YEAR, MONTH, and DAY functions each take a date cell as input. Using A1 for all extracts the parts from the same date.