What Inclusive Dates Mean (With Examples)

A date range is inclusive when it counts its end date as part of the range, and exclusive when it stops at the start of the end date. An event running from Jan 1 to Jan 2 covers two full days if the range is inclusive, and only Jan 1 if it is exclusive.

What "Both Dates Inclusive" Means

You'll often see phrases like "Monday to Friday, both days inclusive" or "March 1 to March 10 inclusive" in contracts, notices and offers. They mean the first and last dates both count, so an offer valid from March 1 to March 10 inclusive can still be used on March 10. An inclusive period works the same way: a notice period that runs from June 1 to June 30 inclusive ends at the close of June 30, not the start of it.

This matters when you count days. Jan 1 to Jan 10 inclusive is 10 days, because Jan 10 counts. Counted exclusively, the same range is 9 days. To count an inclusive range, subtract the start date from the end date and add one.

Inclusive Dates on Application Forms

Job applications, employment records and school forms often ask for the "inclusive dates" of a job or of your attendance at a school. The form wants the first and last dates you were there, usually in From and To boxes. If you worked somewhere from June 2018 through March 2022, those are your inclusive dates, and both months count. If you're still there, most forms accept "Present" as the To date. Some school forms ask for inclusive years of attendance instead: give the first and last year you attended, such as 2018 to 2022, and both years count.

If you're pulling these dates together for an application, laying them out on a career timeline makes gaps and overlaps easy to spot.

How Preceden Interprets End Dates

Preceden treats the end date you enter as inclusive: the event runs through that date, not up to the start of it. If a friend told you she was going to Europe from May to June, you'd assume the trip includes June. Preceden reads your dates the same way, as May through June.

The exception is an end date that includes a time. If the same friend told you she had a dentist appointment from 1pm to 2pm, you'd know it lasts an hour, and Preceden reads it that way too.

Here are a few examples:

Two Day Event Span

Take the following event:

Start Date: Jan 1, 2015
End Date: Jan 2, 2015

Preceden interprets this to mean that the event ends at the end of Jan 2:

A day-scale timeline where the Event bar starts on Jan 1, 2015 and runs to the end of Jan 2, covering two full days

Single Day Event Span

Start Date: Jan 1, 2015
End Date: Jan 1, 2015

Then the event will span a single day:

The same day-scale timeline where the Event bar covers only Jan 1, 2015

Two Year Event Span

Start Date: 2015
End Date: 2016

Then Preceden will interpret it to mean that the event ends at the end of 2016:

A year-scale timeline where the Event bar starts in 2015 and runs to the end of 2016, covering two full years

One Year Event Span

Start Date: 2015
End Date: 2015

Which is identical to:

Start Date: Jan 1, 2015
End Date: Dec 31, 2015

Because the end date Dec 31, 2015 includes that day, the event spans the entire year:

The same year-scale timeline where the Event bar covers only 2015

End Dates That Include a Time

Start Date: Jan 1, 2015 1pm
End Date: Jan 1, 2015 2pm

Unlike the examples above that deal with dates, this end date specifies a time which Preceden interprets as the exact end time:

A timeline scaled to hours where the Event bar runs from the 1pm mark to the 2pm mark

Inclusive vs Exclusive Dates in Preceden

Two rules cover every case above:

An end date without a time is inclusive. Preceden runs the event through the end of that date, so Jan 2 means the end of Jan 2, and 2016 means the end of Dec 31, 2016.
An end date with a time is exact. Preceden uses the time you entered rather than extending the event, so 2pm means 2pm.

If you want an event to stop at the start of its end date, the way an exclusive range would, enter the previous day as the end date instead. An event that should cover only Jan 1 gets an end date of Jan 1, not Jan 2.

The same rule decides where two events meet. A job that ends in June 2020 and another that starts in June 2020 both include June, so Preceden draws them overlapping by a month. If the first one really ended before the second began, end it in May or use exact days. Make an Overlapping Timeline covers laying out events that run side by side.