

Sometimes you want to get the current time in Excel. For example within a formula: A realistic scenario could be, if you want a formula to determine whether a given time and date is in the future or the past. Or you want to insert a timestamp on your Excel sheet. Therefore, you might want to take a look at the NOW() formula.
Contents
Let’s assume, you got a date in cell A1. You want to know if the date is in the future or the past. Therefore, you need to use the IF formula as follows:
=IF(A1>NOW(),”Future”,”Past”)
Please keep in mind that whenever a table is calculated, the time shown will be updated. So the formula is not able to save the last save or edit date.
Hold on a second. Was this information helpful so far?
Why don't you subscribe to our monthly, free Excel newsletter?
Subscribe now! Your welcome gift: Our big 45 pages keyboard shortcuts package. In case the sign-up form above doesn't work, please use this page. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Of course, I'm also on other networks:
Twitter: Follow @professorexcel
Facebook:
The problem with the NOW formula: It changes every time Excel calculates. So you can consider it always up-to-date. But sometimes you just want to get a time stamp. Here are 4 methods of how to enter a fixed date and time:
Sub updateTimeStamp() ActiveCell = Now() End Sub
Sub updateTimeStamp() Sheets("Sheet1").Range("A1") = Now() 'Replace "Sheet1" with your sheetname and "A1" with the cell reference End Sub
Excel too slow? Speed it up. Get the book now!
Tired of waiting for Excel? Use the 30 best methods described in this book to speed up Excel calculations!
Learn more or get it on Amazon!
There is another very similar formula in Excel: the formula =TODAY() returns todays date. Let’s see the difference to =NOW():
'Professor Excel Tools': Add more than 60 amazing features to Excel!
Professor's Error Helper for Excel: Solve any error in Excel.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.