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Computer Serial Date

By Ted French, About.com

Definition:

Computers store the date as a number representing the number of full days since midnight January 1, 1900 plus the number of hours, minutes, and seconds for the current day.

Excel's =NOW and =TODAY functions use this number to add the current date and/or time to a spreadsheet.

On Macintosh computers, the serial date begins in January 1904.

Also Known As: Serial Date, Serial Number

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