Determining the elapsed time between two dates, specifically calculating someone’s lifespan or the duration between events, is a common requirement in various professional and personal settings. Spreadsheet software offers functions to accomplish this, providing users with the ability to compute age based on a given birthdate and a reference date. For instance, one could use the `DATEDIF` function, coupled with date formatting, to display the result in years, months, and days.
The ability to automatically compute age or duration offers significant advantages in data management, reporting, and analysis. Calculating these values manually would be time-consuming and prone to error, especially when dealing with large datasets. Moreover, the features available within these programs allow for dynamic recalculation; if the reference date changes, the computed age is automatically updated. Historically, this type of calculation required specialized programming or manual computation, but spreadsheet programs have democratized access to this functionality.
