NOW Function Examples – Excel, VBA, & Google Sheets

This Excel Tutorial demonstrates how to use the Excel NOW Function in Excel to get the current date and time, with formula examples.
now function examples

NOW Function Overview:

The NOW Function Returns the current date and time.

To use the NOW Function select a cell and type:

=NOW()

now function example

Current Date Only

To display only the current date you can use the TODAY Function.

Alternatively, you can adjust cell formatting to display only the current date without the time:

now function date only

Current Time only

Or only the current time without the date:

now function time only

Date Time Formatting

To change formatting, you have several options. The easiest is to go to the Home Ribbon and select the Number Formatting Drop Down:

vba date time format

Or you can use shortcut CTRL + 1 to select more formatting options, including custom formatting:

excel number formatting

Read our article on Formatting Dates to learn more.

NOW & TEXT Formula

You can use the TEXT Function to adjust how the current Date and/or Time appears. This is useful when you want to add the date/time to a string of text:

<<example: of text output “The current date is April 7, 2020”>>

Here are more examples:

<<update tab “Exact Day and Others from Now” chart and add screen shot>>

NOW Examples in VBA

VBA also contains a built-in NOW Function. You can access the function like this:

Sub NowExample()
    Dim tDate As Date
    tDate = Now
    
    MsgBox tDate
End Sub

now function vba