To create a date range, add the number of days to your start date: =A1+7 gives you the date a week later, and =TODAY()+7 gives you a week from today. Dates are stored as numbers, so plain addition works.
To show the whole range in one cell, wrap both dates in TEXT so they keep their format: =TEXT(A1,"dd-mmm-yy")&" to "&TEXT(B1,"dd-mmm-yy") produces 08-Feb-26 to 15-Feb-26. Without TEXT, joining them with & returns the underlying serial numbers instead.
To fill a column of consecutive dates rather than a two-date range, type your start date, then either drag the fill handle down, or use =SEQUENCE(30,1,A1,1) in Excel 365 to spill 30 days at once. For weekdays only, use =WORKDAY(A1,1) and drag down.
While working in data where you have dates, you might have to create a range of dates. A range is something that has a start date and an end date. In this tutorial, you will learn to create a date range.
Create a Date Range Starting from Today
Now let’s say you want to create a date range of seven days starting from today. In the following example, we have today’s date in cell A1 which we have got by using today’s function.
=A1+7To create a date range, follow these simple steps:
- Enter the “=” in cell B1, or any other cell.
- Refer to cell A1, where you have the starting date of the range.
- Use the “+” sign to add days to today’s date.
- Specify the number of days you want to add to today’s date.
Create a Date Range in a Single Cell
Let’s go a little further and create a date range in a single cell. And for this, we need to combine both starting date and the ending date in a single cell. But the problem is when you try to combine two dates within a single cell it returns something like the below.
Now to overcome this problem we need to use the TEXT function to convert dates into text and then combine them as a range of dates. The formula would be something like the one below.
=TEXT(A1,"dd/mmm/yy")&" --- "&TEXT(B1,"dd/mmm/yy")Now as you can see, we have a range of dates in cell C1 starting from 8-Feb-22 to 15-Feb-22. And if you want to create a range of dates in a single cell, you can use the following formula.
=TEXT(TODAY(),"dd/mmm/yy")&" --- "&TEXT(A1+7,"dd/mmm/yy")In the part about using the TEXT function, you can change the format of the date the way you want.
Written by
Puneet Gogia
Microsoft MVP — Excel · Founder, Excel Champs
Twelve years of teaching Excel, and a decade before that using it as a data analyst. Every tutorial here is written from a file I actually built.