What is Excel EDATE Function?
Excel EDATE Function is to add (or subtract) specified months to a date. For example, adding 2 months to Jan 14, 2015 would be Mar 14, 2015.
Syntax of EDATE
EDATE(start_date, months)
| start_date | A date to add months to |
| months | Positive integer to indicate to add month to start_date, negative to indicate subtraction |
By default, a Cell Format is “General” which does not display a date as date format (such as mm/dd/yyyy), instead date is displayed as numerical value (date serial). Go to Format Cell and choose the desired Date format in order for the Function to display date.
Example of EDATE
Assume that Cell A1 contains a date 1/1/2015, Cell A2 contains a date 31/1/2015
| Formula | Result | Explanation |
| =EDATE(A1,2) | 1/3/2015 | Add two months to 1/1/2015 |
| =EDATE(A1,-2) | 1/11/2014 | Subtract two months from 1/1/2015 |
| =EDATE(A2,1) | 28/2/2015 | Since Feb does not have 31 days, the Function returns the last date of Feb |
| =EDATE(A1,12*3) | 1/1/2018 | Add three years to 1/1/2015 |
| =EDATE(Date(2015,1,1),2) | 1/3/2015 | Instead of selecting a Range, use Date Function to convert (2015,1,1) to date serial in the start_date parameter |
Alternative of EDATE
Assume that we add 5 years to 2015 Jul 1 (A1)
| Formula | Result |
| =DATE(YEAR(A1)+5,MONTH(A1),DAY(A1)) | 01/07/2020 |
Assume that we add 5 months to 2015 Jul 1 (A1)
| Formula | Result |
| =DATE(YEAR(A1),MONTH(A1)+5,DAY(A1)) | 1/12/2015 |
To see how to add day, hour, minute and second, read the below article.
Excel Function add year month day hour minute second to date
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