How do I calculate the difference between 2 dates?

jretzlaff
jretzlaff
edited 12/09/19 in Smartsheet Basics

Trying to track variable durations of past projects and simply want to subtract the start date from the completion date... depending on which format the column is in, I get various errors.  Seems like I should be able to simply subtract one cell from the other, no?

 

 

Capture.PNG

Comments

  • Mike Wilday
    Mike Wilday ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    Are you wanting to get the number of calendar days or business days? 

    =networkdays([Column 8]23, [Column 8]25)

    =netdays([Column 8]23, [Column 8]25)

    Hope that helps! :)

  • Chris McKay
    Chris McKay ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    Hi jretzlaff,

    Is Column8 a date formatted column?

    Based on the Start and Turnover values, I'd say no.

    If you cell-link dates in from a Date column and they land in a Text/Number column, Smartsheet will not treat them as dates. So even though Mike's formulas are 100% correct, you'll still get an error.

    To make matters worse, Smartsheet uses the base format (i.e. Date) when a formula is entered into a Date column (even if you don't restrict the column to dates). Again Smartsheet.... Why? Whyyyyyyyyy?

    I'd suggest applying Mike's formulas to a Date column and restricting the cell-links to dates only.

    Kind regards,

    Chris McKay

  • This content has been removed.