Calculating month in excel

The MONTH function in Excel is a date function used to find the month for a given date in a date format. This function takes an argument in a date format, and the result is in integer format. This function’s value is in the range of 1-12 as there are only twelve months in a year. The method to use this function is as follows =MONTH( serial_number). The argument provided to this function should be in a recognizable date format of Excel.

For example, =MONTH(A1) – returns the month of a date in A1.

=MONTH(DATE(2020,6,10)) – returns 6 corresponding to June.

Also, =MONTH(“10-June-2020”) – returns number 6 too.

The MONTH function in Excel gives the month from its date. It returns the month number ranging from 1 to 12.

MONTH Formula in Excel

Below is the MONTH Formula in Excel.

Or

MONTH( date )

MONTH in Excel – Illustration

Suppose a date (10 August, 18) is given in cell B3. You want to find the month in Excel of the given date in numbers.

You can use the MONTH formula in Excel given below:

= MONTH (B3)

Press the “Enter” key. The MONTH function in Excel will return 8.

You can also use the following MONTH formula in Excel:

= MONTH (“10 Aug 2018”)

Press the “Enter” key. The MONTH function will also return the same value.

The date 10 Aug 2018 refers to a value 43322 in Excel. You can also use this value directly as input to the MONTH function. The MONTH formula in Excel would be:

= MONTH (43322)

MONTH function in Excel will return 8.

Alternatively, you can also use the date in another format:

= MONTH (“10-Aug-2018”)

Excel MONTH function will also return 8.

Let us look at examples of where and how to use the MONTH function in Excel in various scenarios.

How to Use MONTH Function in Excel?

The MONTH function in Excel is very simple and easy to use. Let us understand the working of a MONTH in excel by some examples.

serial_number: a valid date for which the month number is to be identified

The input date must be a valid Excel dateThe date function in excel is a date and time function representing the number provided as arguments in a date and time code. The result displayed is in date format, but the arguments are supplied as integers.read more. The dates in Excel are stored as serial numbers. For example, the date Jan 1, 2010, equals the serial number 40179 in Excel. The MONTH formula in Excel takes as input both the date directly or the serial number of the date. It is to be noted here that Excel does not recognize dates earlier than 1/1/1900.

Returns

The MONTH function in Excel always returns a number ranging from 1 to 12. This number corresponds to the month of the input date.

You can download this MONTH Function Excel Template here – MONTH Function Excel Template

MONTH in Excel Example #1

Suppose you have a list of dates given in the cells B3: B7, as shown below. You want to find the month name of each of these given dates.

You can do so using the following MONTH formula in Excel:

= CHOOSE ((MONTH(B3)), “Jan”, “Feb”, “Mar”, “Apr”, “May”, “Jun”, “Jul”, “Aug”, “Sep”, “Oct”, “Nov”, “Dec”)

MONTH (B3) will return 1.

CHOOSE (1, …..) will choose the 1^st option of the given 12, Jan here.

So, the MONTH function in Excel will return Jan as a result.

Similarly, you can drag it for the rest of the cells.

Alternatively, you can use the following MONTH formula in Excel:

= TEXT (B3, “mmm”)

The MONTH function will return Jan as a result.

MONTH in Excel Example #2

Suppose you have month names (say in “mmm” format) given in cells B4: B15.

Now, you want to convert these names to the month in numbers.

You can use the following MONTH in Excel:

= MONTH ( DATEVALUE( B4 & ” 1”)

For Jan, the MONTH in Excel will return 1. For Feb, it will return 2 and so on.

MONTH in Excel Example #3

Suppose you have a list of holidays given in cells B3: B9 in a date-wise manner, as shown below.

Now, you want to calculate the number of holidays each month. To do so, you can use the following MONTH formula in Excel for the first month given in E4:

= SUMPRODUCT( –( MONTH( $B$4:$B$16 ) = MONTH( DATEVALUE( E4 & ” 1″)) ) )

Then, drag it to the rest of the cells.

Let us look at the MONTH function in Excel detail:

• MONTH( $B$4:$B$16 ) will check the month of the dates provided in cell range B4:B16 in a number format. The MONTH function in Excel will return {1; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 6; 8; 9; 10; 11; 12}
• MONTH( DATEVALUE( E4 & ” 1″) will give the month in number corresponding to cell E4 (see example 2). The MONTH function in Excel will return 1 for January
• SUMPRODUCT in ExcelThe SUMPRODUCT excel function multiplies the numbers of two or more arrays and sums up the resulting products.read more (– (…) = (..) ) will match the month given in B4:B16 with January (=1) and will add one each time when it is true.

Since January appears twice in the given data, the MONTH function in Excel will return 2.

Similarly, you can do for the rest of the cells.

MONTH in Excel Example #4

Suppose you have sales data for the past two years. The data was collected on the last date of the month. The data was manually entered, so there could be a mismatch in the data. You should compare the sales between 2016 and 2017 for each month.

To check if the months are the same and then compare the sales, you can use the MONTH formula in Excel:

=IF( (MONTH(B4)) = (MONTH(D4) ), IF( E4 > C4, “Increase”, “Decrease” ),  “Month-Mismatch” )

For the first entry, the MONTH function in Excel will return “Increase.”

Let us look at the MONTH in Excel in detail:

If the MONTH of B4 (for 2016) is equal to the MONTH given in D4 (for 2017),

• The MONTH function in Excel will check if the sales for the given month in 2017 are greater than that in 2016.
  • If it is greater, it will return “Increase.”
  • Else, it will return to “Decrease.”

If the MONTH of B4 (for 2016) is not equal to the MONTH given in D4 (for 2017),

• The MONTH function in Excel will return “Mismatch.”

Similarly, you can do for the rest of the cells.

You could also add another condition to check if the sales are equal and return “Constant.”

MONTH in Excel Example #5

Suppose you work in your company’s sales department and have date-wise data of how many products were sold on a particular date for the previous year, as shown below.

Now, you want to club the number of products monthly. To do so, you use the following MONTH formula in Excel:

= SUMPRODUCT(– ( EXACT( F4, MONTH( $B$4:$B$17 ))), $C$4:$C$17 )

For the first cell, the MONTH function in Excel will return 16.

Then, drag it to the rest of the cells.

Let us look at the MONTH in Excel in detail:

= SUMPRODUCT(– ( EXACT( F4, MONTH( $B$4:$B$17 ))), $C$4:$C$17 )

• MONTH( $B$4:$B$17 ) will give the month of the cells in B4: B17. MONTH function in Excel will return a matrix {2; 8; 3; 2; 1; 7; 2; 5; 9; 6; 12; 11; 4; 10}
• EXACT( F4, MONTH( $B$4:$B$17 )) will match the month in F4 ( 1 here) with the matrix and will return another matrix with TRUE when it is a match or FALSE otherwise. For the 1st month, it will return {FALSE; FALSE; FALSE; FALSE; TRUE; FALSE; FALSE; FALSE; FALSE; FALSE; FALSE; FALSE; FALSE; FALSE}
• SUMPRODUCT (– (..), $C$4:$C$17) will sum the values in C4:C17 when the corresponding value in the matrix is “TRUE.”

The MONTH function in Excel will return 16 for January.

Things to remember about a MONTH in Excel

• The MONTH function returns the month of the given date or serial number.
• Excel MONTH function is given #VALUE! Error when it cannot recognize the date.
• The Excel MONTH function accepts dates only after 1 Jan 1900. It will provide the #VALUE! Error when the input date is earlier than 1 Jan 1900.
• The MONTH function in Excel returns the month in number format only. Therefore, its output is always a number between 1 and 12.

MONTH Excel Function Video

Recommended Articles

This article is a guide to MONTH Function in Excel. We discuss the MONTH formula in Excel and how to use the MONTH function, along with Excel examples and downloadable Excel templates. You may also look at these useful functions in Excel: –

• EDATE Function in ExcelEDATE is a date and time function in excel which adds a given number of months into a date and gives us a date in a numerical format of date. It takes dates and integers as input, the output returned by this function is also a date value. read more
• VBA MONTH VBA Month Function is an inbuilt function that is used to extract the month from a date. The output of this function is an integer ranging from 1 to 12. Only the month number is extracted from the supplied date value by this function.read more
• EOMONTH in ExcelEOMONTH is a worksheet date function in excel which calculates the end of the month for the given date by adding a specified number of months to the arguments. This function takes two arguments: the date and another as integer, and the output is in the date format.read more
• FREQUENCY Excel FunctionThe FREQUENCY function in Excel calculates the number of times a data values occurs within a given range of values and returns a vertical array of numbers corresponding to each value’s frequency within a range.read more

Excel MONTH Function (Table of Contents)

• MONTH in Excel
• MONTH Formula in Excel
• How to Use MONTH Function in Excel?

MONTH in Excel

The month function in excel is one of the simplest functions to understand, which only returns a month out of any selected dates. We can either enter the select the cell containing a date or enter to the month number we want to see. But using the Month function by selecting any date and getting the month number out of that is the best way to use it.

MONTH Formula in Excel:

The Formula for the MONTH Function in Excel is as follows.

The MONTH function uses only one argument where the serial number argument is the date that you want to return the month.

NOTE: It is recommended that dates should be supplied to Excel functions as either, Serial numbers or Reference to cells containing dates or Date values returned from other Excel formulas.

DAY Formula in Excel:

The Formula for the DAY Function in Excel is as follows.

Arguments :

date_value/ Serial_number: A valid date to return the day.

Returns:

The DAY function returns a numeric value between 1 and 31.

YEAR Formula in Excel:

The Formula for the YEAR Function in Excel is as follows.

Arguments:

date_value/Serial_number: A valid date to return the month.

Returns:

The YEAR function returns a numeric value between 1999 and 9999.

Steps to Use Month Function in Excel

MONTH Function in Excel can be used as part of a formula in a cell of a worksheet. Let’s consider the below example for good understanding. We cannot enter 10/05/2018 directly into the cell. Instead,d we need to enter “10/05/2018”. Excel will automatically convert dates stored in cells into serial format unless the date is entered in text.

After entering into the cell, the formula input appears below; the cell is shown below for reference. We can use the shortcut “Insert Function Dialog Box” for detailed instructions:

We will get a below dialogue box to select the specific cell where we have given Month Date Year.

Select the B2 Cell.

Give ok so that we will get the exact month value.

Result:

Using Choose & Today Function

Using the month function, we can use the choose & Today function to get the exact month name, wherein the above example shows we have used only the MONTH function to get the month value. In the below example, we have used the month function along with CHOOSE and TODAY.

This dynamic formula will return the name of the month instead of the month number.

How to Use MONTH Function in Excel?

MONTH Function in excel is very simple easy to use. Let us now see how to use the MONTH Function in Excel with the help of some examples.

You can download this MONTH Function Excel Template here – MONTH Function Excel Template

Example #1

To find out today month, we can use the below formula:

=MONTH(TODAY())

Which will return the current today month.

Let see to extract the month value with the below example

Example #2

In the above example, we have retrieved the exact month by using the Month function to get the month name.

Example #3

In certain scenarios, we can see Year, a month, and a day will be given. In this case, we cannot use the MONTH function. To get an accurate result, we can use the Month Function along with the date function.

Date Function:

Formula:

DATE( year, month, day )

where the year, month, and day arguments are integers representing the year, month, and day of the required date.

In the below example, we have used the Month Function and the date function to get the proper result.

The Result will be:

Using the End of Month Function in Excel

If we need to find out the end of the month, EOMONTH can be useful to find out exactly.

To calculate the last day of a month based on a given date, you can use the EOMONTH function. Let’s see the below example works.

So in the above example, we can see A1 columns, which have a day, Month & Year, and B1 Columns, showing the Last day of the month using the EOMONTH function.

We can drag the formula by using Ctrl + D or double click on the right corner of the cell B2.

In this way, we can easily extract the end of the month without using a calendar.

How EOMONTH Formula Works?

This EOMONTH Function allows you to get the last day of the month in the future or past month. If we use Zero(o) for months, EOMONTH will return the last day of the month in the same month, which we have seen in the above example. To get the last day of the prior month, we can use the below formula to execute:

Formula:

=EOMONTH(date,-1)

To get the last day of the next month, we can use the below formula to execute:

Formula:

=EOMONTH(date,1)

Alternatively, we can use the Date, Year and Month function to return the last day of the Month.

Formula:

=DATE(YEAR(date),MONTH(date)+1,0)

So in the above example, we can see various months in the A1 columns, and B1 shows the Last day of the month.

In this way, we can easily extract the end of the month without using a calendar.

Date Function Arguments

The excel date function is a built-in function in excel that will come under the Date/Time Function, where it returns the serial date value for a date.

A formula for DATE Function:

=DATE( year, month, day )

Arguments:

Year: A a number that is between 1 and 4 digits that represent the year.

Month: This represents month value; if the month value is greater than 12, then every 12 months will add1 one year to the year value.

Day: This represents day Value. If the day value is greater than the number of days, then the exact number of months will be added to the month value.

Example

If we enter the date by default, excel will take as a general format which is shown below:

It will take as a general format which is shown below:

So in order to get the exact date to be displayed, we have to choose the format cells, and then we need to choose the day, month & year format.

In the above example, we have formatted the cell to get the appropriate date, month & year.

Common Errors We will Face While Using Month Function in Excel:

If we normally enter the date in the cell by default, excel will take an integer value because of “General format”.

So whenever we wish to update the date in the cell, we need to format the cell and choose the appropriate date, month and Year format.

Things to Remember

• The Date from which you want to get the month number should be a valid date.
• If you mention an invalid date, it will return #VALUE! error.
• if you skip entering any value in serial_number, it will return.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to MONTH in Excel. Here we discuss the MONTH Formula in Excel and how to use MONTH Function in Excel along with excel examples and downloadable excel templates. You may also look at these useful functions in excel –

1. VBA Month
2. Excel DATEDIF Function
3. Excel Add Months to Dates
4. WEEKDAY Formula in Excel