Displaying a Number as Years and Months

Summary: How do you display a number of years, such as 3.67 years, as a number of years and months? It's simple to do with a formula, as discussed in this tip. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007.)

Robert has a formula that determines the payback period for certain investments. For instance, with $20,000 investment in energy-savings equipment and an annual energy savings of $3000, the simplistic payback period to recoup the investment is 6.6667 years. Robert wonders how he can make this payback period (6.6667) show as years and months instead of as a decimal number.

This can be done by simply multiplying the portion of the answer at the right of the decimal point by 12, which results in a number of months. Here is one way to get the desired result, assuming that the payback result is in cell A1:

=INT(A1) & " years / " & INT((A1-INT(A1))*12) & " months"

With the value 6.6667 in cell A1, the formula would return "6 years / 8 months".

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6960) applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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Displaying a Number as Years and Months