How to use YEARFRAC Function in Excel

The Excel YEARFRAC function returns a decimal value that represents fractional years between two dates. You can use YEARFRAC to do things like calculate age with a birthdate.

Syntax: =YEARFRAC (start_date, end_date, [basis])

The YEARFRAC function syntax has the following arguments:

• Start_date (required argument) – This is the start of the period. The function includes the start date in calculations.
• End_date (required argument) – This is the end of the period. The function also includes the end date in calculations.
• [basis] (optional argument) – Specifies the type of day count basis to be used.
  

  Basis	Day count basis
  0 or omitted	US (NASD) 30/360
  1	Actual/actual
  2	Actual/360
  3	Actual/365
  4	European 30/360

Example: Let’s look at some Excel YEARFRAC function examples and explore how to use the YEARFRAC function as a worksheet function in Microsoft Excel:

Syntax:  =YEARFRAC(A2,B2,1)

Result:

Based on the Excel spreadsheet above, the following YEARFRAC examples would return:

Note:

1. If the dates you are using are not working, input them with the DATE() function.
2. #NUM! error – Occurs when the given basis argument is less than 0 or greater than 4.
3. #VALUE! error – Occurs when:
   1. The start_date or end_date arguments are not valid dates.
   2. The given [basis] argument is non-numeric.