YEARS Function (LibreOffice Calc)

• Returns the whole number of years between two dates
• Accepts dates, datetimes, and serial numbers
• Can return positive or negative values
• Ignores partial years (no rounding)

It is designed to be precise, predictable, and ideal for year‑interval calculations.

YEARS(start_date; end_date; [mode])

Arguments

• start_date:
  The beginning date.

• end_date:
  The ending date.

• mode (optional):

  • 0 (default): Count whole years only
  • 1: Count partial years as whole years (ceiling behavior)

Whole years between two dates

=YEARS("2000-01-01"; "2024-01-01")

Returns 24.

Years between dates with partial year ignored

=YEARS("2000-06-15"; "2024-04-10")

Returns 23.

Years between dates counting partial years

=YEARS("2000-06-15"; "2024-04-10"; 1)

Returns 24.

Using cell references

=YEARS(A1; B1)

Age in whole years

=YEARS(A1; TODAY())

Years between two text dates

=YEARS(DATEVALUE(A1); DATEVALUE(B1))

Years between imported CSV timestamps

=YEARS(DATEVALUE(LEFT(A1;10)); DATEVALUE(LEFT(B1;10)))

Years between Excel serial dates stored as text

=YEARS(DATE(1899;12;30)+VALUE(A1); DATE(1899;12;30)+VALUE(B1))

Determine if a contract is older than 5 years

=YEARS(A1; TODAY()) >= 5

Determine if two dates fall in the same year

=YEARS(A1; B1) = 0

Calculate years remaining until retirement

=YEARS(TODAY(); A1)

Calculate service duration in years

=YEARS(HireDate; TODAY())

YEARS returns an integer

Accepts:

• Real dates
• Serial numbers
• DATEVALUE outputs
• ISO date strings

Invalid text → Err:502

Behavior details

• Partial years are ignored unless mode = 1
• Negative results allowed
• Time components are ignored
• Date order matters

YEARS of an error → error propagates

• Use YEARS for age, service duration, and contract logic
• Normalize text dates with DATEVALUE
• Use mode = 1 when partial years should count
• Use YEARS with YEARFRAC for precise fractional calculations
• Use YEARS for annualized reporting periods

• Use MONTHS for month intervals
• Use DATEDIF for more granular intervals
• Use YEARFRAC for fractional years
• Use YEAR for extracting the year
• Use DATEVALUE for text conversion

By mastering YEARS and its companion functions, you can build powerful, reliable, and fully structured year‑interval workflows in LibreOffice Calc.