Excel dates are stored as numbers where the integer part represents the day and the fractional part represents the time of day. | 0.0 | December 30, 1899 (beginning of day) | | 2.0 | January 1, 1900 (beginning of day) | | 2.5 | January 1, 1900 (midday) | | 36526.0 | January 1, 2000 (beginning of day) | | 36526.5 | January 1, 2000 (midday) |
How Excel stores date and time information. What makes a number appear as a date in Excel is a matter of formatting. See Excel Number Formats for more information. Notes • Excel cells only format dates properly after March 1, 1900. Excel erroneously considers 1900 a leap year, and negative numbers cannot be formatted as dates in Excel. • The ExcelForm function does not suffer from the same restrictions as Excel cells and can therefore be used to print out dates before March 1, 1900. |
