DATE function

DATE converts a date written as year, month, day to an internal serial number and displays it in the formatting of the cell.

The default format of a cell containing the DATE function is the date format. However, you can format the cells with the 0 number format, which displays the internal serial number of the date as a number. If the values for month and day are higher, they are carried over to the next digit. If you enter =DATE(00,12,31) the result is 12/31/00. However, if you enter =DATE(00,13,31) the result is 1/31/01.

Syntax

DATE(year, month, day)

  • year is an integer 1899 - 9999 or 0 - 99.
  • month is an integer 1- 12, indicating the month.
  • day is a number 1 - 31, indicating the day of the month.

You can enter dates directly into the DATE function, either as arguments or range references.

Example

=DATE(09,1,3) yields 1/3/09. In international date format, the equivalent date is 3 January 2009.