NETWORKDAYS function is a useful tool in Excel for calculating the number of working days between two given dates. It excludes weekends and, optionally, specified holidays to provide a straightforward way of tracking business days.
Syntax
NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays])
Arguments
| start_date | The start date for the calculation. |
| end_date | The end date for the calculation. |
| [holidays] | (Optional) A range or array of dates that you want to exclude from the working days. These can be specified as individual dates or a reference to a range of cells containing holiday dates. |
How to use
NETWORKDAYS function is quite straightforward to use. Here’s how you can use it with some examples:
Let’s say you want to calculate the number of working days between two dates. You have the start date in cell A1, the end date in cell B1, and your holidays in the range C1:C5.
1. In an empty cell, enter the formula:
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=NETWORKDAYS(A1, B1, C1:C5) |
This formula will return the number of working days between the start date (A1) and the end date (B1), excluding the dates in the range C1:C5 as holidays.
2. You can also use NETWORKDAYS without specifying holidays. In this case, the function will only exclude weekends (Saturdays and Sundays) from the calculation.
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=NETWORKDAYS(A1, B1) |
3. To count working days within a specific date range without holidays, you can use NETWORKDAYS.INTL function:
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=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(A1, B1, 1) |
Here, the “1” argument corresponds to a weekend of Saturday and Sunday.
Examples
Let’s illustrate the use of NETWORKDAYS function with a few examples:
Example 1: Calculate working days between two dates with specified holidays.
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=NETWORKDAYS("2023-11-01", "2023-11-15", {"2023-11-05","2023-11-11"}) |
This formula calculates the number of working days between November 1, 2023, and November 15, 2023, excluding November 5, 2023, and November 11, 2023, as holidays.
Example 2: Count working days within a date range without specifying holidays.
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=NETWORKDAYS("2023-11-01", "2023-11-15") |
This formula calculates the working days between November 1, 2023, and November 15, 2023, without specifying any holidays. It will exclude weekends by default.
Additional Information
If you need to customize the weekend days or use a different basis for counting working days, you can explore the NETWORKDAYS.INTL function, which allows more flexibility in specifying weekend days and holidays.
