by The tutorial explains the nuts and bolts of Excel MONTH and EOMONTH functions. You will find an array of formula examples demonstrating how to extract month from date in Excel, get the first and last day of the month, convert month name to number and more.
In the previous article, we explored a variety of formulas to calculate weekdays. Today, we are going to operate on a bigger time unit and learn the functions that Microsoft Excel provides for months.
In this tutorial, you will learn:
Excel MONTH function - syntax and uses
Microsoft Excel provides a special MONTH function to extract a month from date, which returns the month number ranging from 1 (January) to 12 (December).
The MONTH function can be used in all versions of Excel 2016 - 2000 and its syntax is as simple as it can possibly be:
Where serial_number is any valid date of the month you are trying to find.
For the correct work of Excel MONTH formulas, a date should be entered by using the DATE(year, month, day) function. For example, the formula =MONTH(DATE(2015,3,1)) returns 3 since DATE represents the 1st day of March, 2015.
Formulas like =MONTH("1-Mar-2015") also work fine, though problems may occur in more complex scenarios if dates are entered as text.
In practice, instead of specifying a date within the MONTH function, it's more convenient to refer to a cell with a date or supply a date returned by some other function. For example:
=MONTH(A1) - returns the month of a date in cell A1.
=MONTH(TODAY()) - returns the number of the current month.
At first sight, the Excel MONTH function may look plain. But look through the below examples and you will be amazed to know how many useful things it can actually do.
How to get month number from date in Excel
There are several ways to get month from date in Excel. Which one to choose depends on exactly what result you are trying to achieve.
MONTH function in Excel - get month number from date
This is the most obvious and easiest way to convert date to month in Excel. For example:
=MONTH(A2)- returns the month of a date in cell A2.=MONTH(DATE(2015,4,15))- returns 4 corresponding to April.=MONTH("15-Apr-2015")- obviously, returns number 4 too.
TEXT function in Excel - extract month as a text string
An alternative way to get a month number from an Excel date is using the TEXT function:
=TEXT(A2, "m")- returns a month number without a leading zero, as 1 - 12.=TEXT(A2,"mm")- returns a month number with a leading zero, as 01 - 12.
Please be very careful when using TEXT formulas, because they always return month numbers as text strings. So, if you plan to perform some further calculations or use the returned numbers in other formulas, you'd better stick with the Excel MONTH function.
The following screenshot demonstrates the results returned by all of the above formulas. Please notice the right alignment of numbers returned by the MONTH function (cells C2 and C3) as opposed to left-aligned text values returned by the TEXT functions (cells C4 and C5).
How to extract month name from date in Excel
In case you want to get a month name rather than a number, you use the TEXT function again, but with a different date code:
=TEXT(A2, "mmm")- returns an abbreviated month name, as Jan - Dec.=TEXT(A2,"mmmm")- returns a full month name, as January - December.
If you don't actually want to convert date to month in your Excel worksheet, you are just wish to display a month name only instead of the full date, then you don't want any formulas.
Select a cell(s) with dates, press Ctrl+1 to opent the Format Cells dialog. On the Number tab, select Custom and type either "mmm" or "mmmm" in the Type box to display abbreviated or full month names, respectively. In this case, your entries will remain fully functional Excel dates that you can use in calculations and other formulas. For more details about changing the date format, please see Creating a custom date format in Excel.
How to convert month number to month name in Excel
Suppose, you have a list of numbers (1 through 12) in your Excel worksheet that you want to convert to month names. To do this, you can use any of the following formulas:
To return an abbreviated month name (Jan - Dec):
=TEXT(A2*28, "mmm")
=TEXT(DATE(2015, A2, 1), "mmm")
To return a full month name (January - December):
=TEXT(A2*28, "mmmm")
=TEXT(DATE(2015, A2, 1), "mmmm")
In all of the above formulas, A2 is a cell with a month number. And the only real difference between the formulas is the month codes:
- "mmm" - 3-letter abbreviation of the month, such as Jan - Dec
- "mmmm" - month spelled out completely
- "mmmmm" - the first letter of the month name
How these formulas work
When used together with month format codes such as "mmm" and "mmmm", Excel considers the number 1 as Day 1 in January 1900. Multiplying 1, 2, 3 etc. by 28, you are getting Days 28, 56, 84, etc. of the year 1900, which are in January, February, March, etc. The format code "mmm" or "mmmm" displays only the month name.
How to convert month name to number in Excel
There are two Excel functions that can help you convert month names to numbers - DATEVALUE and MONTH. Excel's DATEVALUE function converts a date stored as text to a serial number that Microsoft Excel recognizes as a date. And then, the MONTH function extracts a month number from that date.
The complete formula is as follows:
=MONTH(DATEVALUE(A2 & "1"))
Where A2 in a cell containing the month name you want to turn into a number (&"1" is added for the DATEVALUE function to understand it's a date).
How to get the last day of month in Excel (EOMONTH function)
The EOMONTH function in Excel is used to return the last day of the month based on the specified start date. It has the following arguments, both of which are required:
- Start_date - the starting date or a reference to a cell with the start date.
- Months - the number of months before or after the start date. Use a positive value for future dates and negative value for past dates.
Here are a few EOMONTH formula examples:
=EOMONTH(A2, 1) - returns the last day of the month, one month after the date in cell A2.
=EOMONTH(A2, -1) - returns the last day of the month, one month before the date in cell A2.
Instead of a cell reference, you can hardcode a date in your EOMONTH formula. For example, both of the below formulas return the last day in April.
=EOMONTH("15-Apr-2015", 0)
=EOMONTH(DATE(2015,4,15), 0)
To return the last day of the current month, you use the TODAY() function in the first argument of your EOMONTH formula so that today's date is taken as the start date. And, you put 0 in the months argument because you don't want to change the month either way.
=EOMONTH(TODAY(), 0)
Note. Since the Excel EOMONTH function returns the serial number representing the date, you have to apply the date format to a cell(s) with your formulas. Please see How to change date format in Excel for the detailed steps.
And here are the results returned by the Excel EOMONTH formulas discussed above:
If you want to calculate how many days are left till the end of the current month, you simply subtract the date returned by TODAY() from the date returned by EOMONTH and apply the General format to a cell:
=EOMONTH(TODAY(), 0)-TODAY()
How to find the first day of month in Excel
As you already know, Microsoft Excel provides just one function to return the last day of the month (EOMONTH). When it comes to the first day of the month, there is more than one way to get it.
Example 1. Get the 1st day of month by the month number
If you have the month number, then use a simple DATE formula like this:
For example, =DATE(2015, 4, 1) will return 1-Apr-15.
If your numbers are located in a certain column, say in column A, you can add a cell reference directly in the formula:
=DATE(2015, B2, 1)
Example 2. Get the 1st day of month from a date
If you want to calculate the first day of the month based on a date, you can use the Excel DATE function again, but this time you will also need the MONTH function to extract the month number:
For example, the following formula will return the first day of the month based on the date in cell A2:
=DATE(2015,MONTH(A2),1)
Example 3. Find the first day of month based on the current date
When your calculations are based on today's date, use a liaison of the Excel EOMONTH and TODAY functions:
=EOMONTH(TODAY(),0) +1 - returns the 1st day of the following month.
As you remember, we already used a similar EOMONTH formula to get the last day of the current month. And now, you simply add 1 to that formula to get the first day of the next month.
In a similar manner, you can get the first day of the previous and current month:
=EOMONTH(TODAY(),-2) +1 - returns the 1st day of the previous month.
=EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1) +1 - returns the 1st day of the current month.
You could also use the Excel DATE function to handle this task, though the formulas would be a bit longer. For example, guess what the following formula does?
=DATE(YEAR(TODAY()), MONTH(TODAY()), 1)
Yep, it returns the first day of the current month.
And how do you force it to return the first day of the following or previous month? Hands down :) Just add or subtract 1 to/from the current month:
To return the first day of the following month:
=DATE(YEAR(TODAY()), MONTH(TODAY())+1, 1)
To return the first day of the previous month:
=DATE(YEAR(TODAY()), MONTH(TODAY())-1, 1)
How to calculate the number of days in a month
In Microsoft Excel, there exist a variety of functions to work with dates and times. However, it lacks a function for calculating the number of days in a given month. So, we'll need to make up for that omission with our own formulas.
Example 1. To get the number of days based on the month number
If you know the month number, the following DAY / DATE formula will return the number of days in that month:
In the above formula, the DATE function returns the first day of the following month, from which you subtract 1 to get the last day of the month you want. And then, the DAY function converts the date to a day number.
For example, the following formula returns the number of days in April (the 4th month in the year).
=DAY(DATE(2015, 4 +1, 1) -1)
Example 2. To get the number of days in a month based on date
If you don't know a month number but have any date within that month, you can use the YEAR and MONTH functions to extract the year and month number from the date. Just embed them in the DAY / DATE formula discussed in the above example, and it will tell you how many days a given month contains:
=DAY(DATE(YEAR(A2), MONTH(A2) +1, 1) -1)
Where A2 is cell with a date.
Alternatively, you can use a much simpler DAY / EOMONTH formula. As you remember, the Excel EOMONTH function returns the last day of the month, so you don't need any additional calculations:
=DAY(EOMONTH(A1, 0))
The following screenshot demonstrates the results returned by all of the formulas, and as you see they are identical:
How to sum data by month in Excel
In a large table with lots of data, you may often need to get a sum of values for a given month. And this might be a problem if the data was not entered in chronological order.
The easiest solution is to add a helper column with a simple Excel MONTH formula that will convert dates to month numbers. Say, if your dates are in column A, you use =MONTH(A2).
And now, write down a list of numbers (from 1 to 12, or only those month numbers that are of interest to you) in an empty column, and sum values for each month using a SUMIF formula similar to this:
=SUMIF(C2:C15, E2, B2:B15)
Where E2 is the month number.
The following screenshot shows the result of the calculations:
If you'd rather not add a helper column to your Excel sheet, no problem, you can do without it. A bit more trickier SUMPRODUCT function will work a treat:
=SUMPRODUCT((MONTH($A$2:$A$15)=$E2) * ($B$2:$B$15))
Where column A contains dates, column B contains the values to sum and E2 is the month number.
Note. Please keep in mind that both of the above solutions add up all values for a given month regardless of the year. So, if your Excel worksheet contains data for several years, all of it will be summed.
How to conditionally format dates based on month
Now that you know how to use the Excel MONTH and EOMONTH functions to perform various calculations in your worksheets, you may take a step further and improve the visual presentation. For this, we are going to use the capabilities of Excel conditional formatting for dates.
In addition to the examples provided in the above mentioned article, now I will show you how you can quickly highlight all cells or entire rows related to a certain month.
Example 1. Highlight dates within the current month
In the table from the previous example, suppose you want to highlight all rows with the current month dates.
First off, you extract the month numbers from dates in column A using the simplest =MONTH($A2) formula. And then, you compare those numbers with the current month returned by =MONTH(TODAY()). As a result, you have the following formula which returns TRUE if the months' numbers match, FALSE otherwise:
=MONTH($A2)=MONTH(TODAY())
Create an Excel conditional formatting rule based on this formula, and your result may resemble the screenshot below (the article was written in April, so all April dates are highlighted).
Example 2. Highlighting dates by month and day
And here's another challenge. Suppose you want to highlight the major holidays in your worksheet regardless of the year. Let's say Christmas and New Year days. How would you approach this task?
Simply use the Excel DAY function to extract the day of the month (1 - 31) and the MONTH function to get the month number, and then check if the DAY is equal to either 25 or 31, and if the MONTH is equal to 12:
=AND(OR(DAY($A2)=25, DAY($A2)=31), MONTH(A2)=12)
This is how the MONTH function in Excel works. It appears to be far more versatile than it looks, huh?
In a couple of the next posts, we are going to calculate weeks and years and hopefully you will learn a few more useful tricks. If you are interested in smaller time units, please check out the previous parts of our Excel Dates series (you will find the links below). I thank you for reading and hope to see you next week!
470 comments
I just want to know how to change my date to April 1st
Hello!
Specify which date you want to change.
Pay attention to this comment.
Hello
I have a series of dates in column B and a series of numbers in column L. I want to add the numbers when the month is October. I thought of
=SUMIF(B2:B89,"MONTH=10",L2:L89)
but it gives 0. What is the way to do it.
Thank you
Hello!
Use SUMPRODUCT function. The formula below will do the trick for you:
=SUMPRODUCT($L$2:$L$89,--(MONTH($B$2:$B$89)=10))
Hope this is what you need.
Yes thank you that worked
Hi.
what function to used for converting 15-Oct-20 to Oct'20?
Hello!
You can use custom date format
mmm"'"yy
Hope this is what you need.
hi
i have numbers in a columnlike 1,2,6,7,,4,657,4986,343,113,4245, in another column i want a oformula whichh will find the result of number of months against the days
Hello!
I’m sorry but your task is not entirely clear to me. Could you please describe it in more detail? How are these numbers and dates related? What result do you want to get? Give an example of the source data and the expected result.
Dear sirs, can I ask for a wee bit of your expertise since my own is not enough in this case?
I am looking to do comparisons between quarters during the year but with the closing balance date fixed from previous year. Let me explain:
E.g. QUARTER 4(b)=2020-12-31, QUARTER 3(c)=2020-09-30, Closing balance (QUARTER 4(a))=2019-12-31.
I have created formulas for Q4(b) and Q3(c) (linked to another date cell with the help of your EOMONTH-functions on this page) respecively so that when Q4(b)=>Q1(b), Q3(c)=>Q4(c). But, i want the Closing balance date Q4(a) (ie. 2019-12-31) to remain the same during the year UNTILL the new accounting year starts. So when Q1(b)=2021-03-31, Q4(c)=2020-12-31 and Q4(a)=2020-12-31.
In words, Q(b) and Q(c) change during the year where Q(a) remain the same with previous year's closing date, and it's only when the Q(b)/Q(c) year change as Q(a) changes closing date one year forward.
I find the Q(a) value quite tricky to solve.
Thank you and regards,
Daniel
There are different dates in excel in each cell. if date is 1st of any month then that should be changed to last date of previous month and if date is 2nd or any other from 2 to 31 then the date should change to last date of that month.
please help with formula in excel
Hello!
If I understand your task correctly, the following formula should work for you:
=IF(DAY(A1)>1,EOMONTH(A1,0),EOMONTH(A1,-1))
I hope my advice will help you solve your task.
Hello,
May I know how to extract the last day of the month if there is only year and month mentioned in general format? For example, 2020-06? The answer I am looking for is 06/30/2020?
Thanks,
Prashant S
Hello!
If I understand your task correctly, the following formula should work for you:
=EOMONTH(B1,0)
Hope this is what you need.
Hi,
I am trying to calculate and convert the current month to "currentmonth" using today date and month.
01/04/2020, 10:15:00
how to convert this in to month
Hello!
I hope you have studied the recommendations in the tutorial above.
i have tried but i can't get the result, can you please give me the formula which will help me to get month when it appears in this format. 01/04/2020, 10:15:00
Hello!
You did not say anything about this, but I can assume that your date is recorded as text. Therefore, you need to remove the comma from it and convert it to a date. And then apply the MONTH function:
=MONTH(DATEVALUE(SUBSTITUTE(D1,",","")))
I hope this will help
Thanks,
So, there is no option without removing , in this format.
Hi,
I need your help.
Column A = Completion of project (Date format: 01-Jul-2020)
Column B = Invoicing Month (Month format: July 2020)
Items completed within 1st - 25th of every month must be invoiced in that month itself and items completed from 26th-31st is to be invoiced the next month.
Any ideas how I can set a rule so Column B is generated based on the dates automatically?
Hello Sammy!
The formula below will do the trick for you:
=IF(DAY(A1)<26,A1,EOMONTH(A1,0)+1)
Remember to set the date format in cell B correctly
Correction: Martch duration = 22 days, April duration = 22 days, May duration = 11 days. Thanks.
Hi Alexander,
I have data as below:
Task start_day end_day duration, d
Task1 01/03/2020 15/05/2020 55
I have to show task duration by month in the chart. How can I get data needed for chart? I need: Martch duration = 20 days, April duration = 20 days, May duration = 15 days. Thanks.
Hello Ruta!
I’m sorry but your task is not entirely clear to me.
Please describe your problem in more detail. Include an example of the source data and the result you want to get. It’ll help me understand your request better and find a solution for you. Thank you.
Sry I forgot to add the formula I'm using. =SUMIF(O6:O24, AN6, AJ6:AJ24)
Hello,
I have used the formula above and only changed the cells, however the result sum to $0. Do the cells need to be together to work because these are not.
Thankyou
Hello Mark!
The formula is spelled correctly. But you asked your question in the wrong article. I recommend that you study this instruction about the SUMIF function.
in case if you got 00 your computer's language setup is the problem
use this: =TEXT(A1;"[$-en-EN]HHHH")
en-EN ---> add here the language's code you want to see
HHHH ---> the version of MMMM (month full lenght) in your computer's language
Your version can be checked in Format Cells - Custom ---> last two options
I am doing a monthly billing spreadsheet where I have listed income by each month, this is along side the bill,amount, and due date. At the bottom I am wanting the extra money left from each month calculation, needing it to register which month it is and bring that months income amount - the current months bills. Example below.
Due Date Bills Amount Month Wks Income(mthly)
7th Car $365 January 4 $2000
8th Netflix $13 February 4 $2000
Total Monthly Expenses $478 Leftover ____?????_____
Hello LeAnn !
I’m sorry but your task is not entirely clear to me. For me to be able to help you better, please describe your task in more detail. Please specify what you were trying to find, what formula you used and what problem or error occurred.How is 478 calculated? Give more an example of the source data and the expected result.
It’ll help me understand it better and find a solution for you. Thank you.
hello. i have a question and it may be stupid if this doesn't exist in excel. :D
is there a command/formula to change all the written month (ex: January) and change it to the next month (ex: February) rather than changing/typing it one by one. i wanted to make the changes faster since the 2 sheet file will be used for the entire year except the months have to be changed.
thank you for your time. :)
I need a format for if a date has is in the last month to return another cell and if its not in the past month to return blank
Hello Ben!
Using cell formatting, your problem cannot be solved. If you need a formula, describe in more detail all the conditions. Please describe your problem in more detail. It’ll help me understand it better and find a solution for you. Thank you.
I am a registered dog breeder and I would like to create in excel a schedule for the litter. I cannot breed two litters in 18 months. How do input my last litter so when I look at it when the right month and year to breed her. I only have 3 dogs.if it's under this month, to show in red. Anyone can help?
Hello!
I’m sorry but your task is not entirely clear to me. You need to use conditional formatting. What data do you use in the table?
For me to be able to help you better, please describe your task in more detail. It’ll help me understand it better and find a solution for you. Thank you.
Currently using this [WEEKNUM(TODAY(), 1)-WEEKNUM(DATE(YEAR(TODAY()), MONTH(TODAY()), 1), 1)+1)] in a countif formula. However what would would i do if i wanted to have a month to date look. Ex Week 1 would just be week 1. and week 2 it would be week one + week two and so on.
Hello!
Your formula calculates the week number in the current month. But I don’t understand what else do you want to calculate? Explain in more detail so that I can help you.
Hi alexander,
Correct. Its currently calculating to look at the current week. IN my scenario I have bunch of dates all throughout the Month. And depending on the week i am in, i calculate how many of those dates fall within the same week that were are in. What i am wanting to do is to adjust that to give me a running total. For example, if i was in week 2 the current formula will just looks at all the dates that are in the second week and count those. Instead I'm wondering if we could alter the formula to look at all the past weeks of the month as well. So if we are in week 2, the formula would Look at week 2 + week 1. I hope i was able to clarify this.
Hello
If I understand your task correctly , if the date is written in cell C1, and the formula
= WEEKNUM (C1,1) -WEEKNUM (DATE (YEAR (C1), MONTH (C1), 1), 1) +1
in cell D1,
then the condition for the counter of the desired dates
= COUNTIFS($D$1:$D$99, D1) + COUNTIFS($D$1:$D$99, D1-1)
I hope this will help, otherwise please do not hesitate to contact me anytime.