Ever found yourself staring at a spreadsheet full of dates and wondering what day of the week they fall on? I’ve been there. Excel, with its myriad functions, can be a lifesaver in these situations. It’s got a nifty trick up its sleeve that’ll help you figure out the weekday of any given date.
Overview of Excel Date Functions
When it comes to dealing with dates, Excel has got you covered. It features a suite of useful date functions that can turn confusing date formats into understandable and practical information – and I’ve delved deep into these to make your life easier.
One such function you’ll find invaluable is WEEKDAY. This fantastic function can convert dates into days of the week, making it a breeze to identify weekdays from a series of dates. It works by taking a date, in any valid Excel date format, and returning the corresponding day of a week (e.g. Monday or Wednesday).
But don’t just stop here because there’s more! The TODAY function, another of Excel’s date function champions, constantly updates to display the current date. This dynamic tool is especially useful when needing to calculate time periods in relation to the present day.
In contrast, the DATE function can create a date based on input for year, month, and day – a handy little thing for date construction or manipulation tasks.
Isn’t it great how versatile Excel is? It’s not just about basic arithmetic or data sorting; it also boasts a broad scope of capabilities in handling dates.
For detail-oriented folks, it’s a dream come true.
So, let’s put this power to practical use and define exactly how you can use these functions to your advantage. The next few sections of our guide provide you with a step-by-step tutorial on using these date functions in Excel. You might find it’s easier than you might think, and rabbit hole of possibilities just waits to be explored.
Just remember, Excel only works with dates that fall within the range of January 1, 1900 to December 31, 9999. I find this a bit disappointing as I had hoped to calculate the weekday when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth… Oh well, you win some, you lose some!
Still, I can’t wait to dig deeper into Excel’s date functions and explore all their vast applications. It’s a genuine, handy toolkit that every Excel user should get to grips with.
Who knew calculating weekdays could be so easy? Well, now you do – and there’s so much more to discover. So, let’s get down to business and start making weekdays work for you in Excel! I guarantee, it’s going to be a game-changer.
Using the WEEKDAY Function
Let’s roll up our sleeves and dive right into using the WEEKDAY function. With WEEKDAY, we can convert any date in Excel into a weekday. It’s like getting the key to a treasure trove of information. Imaging being able to pop a date into a function and getting the weekday in return. It’s efficient, simple, and an effective tool for speeding up spreadsheet tasks.
Within the WEEKDAY function, we have two main arguments: serial_number and return_type. Here’s a quick overview:
| Argument | Function |
|---|---|
| Serial_number | This is basically the date you want to convert. |
| Return_type | Decides how the weekdays should be numbered. Options range from 1 to 3. |
Here are the types of returns we could get from WEEKDAY:
| Return_type | Weekday Numbers |
|---|---|
| 1 | Numbers 1 (Sunday) to 7 (Saturday) |
| 2 | Numbers 1 (Monday) to 7 (Sunday) |
| 3 | Numbers 0 (Monday) to 6 (Sunday) |
Exciting, isn’t it? Armed with this knowledge, all you need to do is insert your date into the WEEKDAY function, choose your return type and voila! You have your weekday. And don’t worry – even if the date is in a different format, as long as Excel recognizes it as a date, the WEEKDAY function will do the rest.
In the next section, we’ll be walking through a step-by-step tutorial on how to implement this function in your day-to-day Excel tasks. But please, don’t hold your excitement back. Go ahead and start playing with the WEEKDAY function. You’ll be surprised at the quick and convenient calculations you can master.
Customizing the WEEKDAY Function
Stepping into the customizable world of the WEEKDAY function, we’ll now focus on making this power-packed tool work according to our individual workflow needs. Quite appealing, isn’t it? Fine-tuning and customizing the WEEKDAY function can improve both your comfort and productivity when dealing with dates in Excel tasks.
The strength of the WEEKDAY function lies in the ‘return_type’ argument. Mastering this intricate part takes the excel experience to another level. Not one, not two – there are seven varied return types to choose from, each catering to specific requirements.
For the beginners out there, don’t worry! We’ll approach this systematically. From calculating weekdays starting from Monday (with Monday as 1 and Sunday as 7) to numbering weekdays with Monday as 0 and Sunday as 6 – your versatility with the WEEKDAY function is about to skyrocket.
Just imagine this – looking at a date, figuring out the corresponding day with your own customized numbering system, and crunching the data in minutes. That’s what’s in store for you after mastering ‘return_type’!
Here’s an overview of the different return types, summarized in a handy table for quick reference:
| Return_type Value | Weekday as Numbers |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sunday = 1, Saturday = 7 |
| 2 | Monday = 1, Sunday = 7 |
| 3 | Monday = 0, Sunday = 6 |
| 11 | Monday = 1, Sunday = 7 |
| 12 | Tuesday = 1, Monday = 7 |
| 13 | Wednesday = 1, Tuesday = 7 |
| 14 | Thursday = 1, Wednesday = 7 |
| 15 | Friday = 1, Thursday = 7 |
| 16 | Saturday = 1, Friday = 7 |
| 17 | Sunday = 1, Saturday = 7 |
As you can see, the ‘return_type’ argument gives you quite the flexibility in displaying weekdays as per your standard or calculation requirements.
Next up, we’ll get practical and dive into some step-by-step tutorials on implementing the WEEKDAY function.
Converting the Weekday Number to Day Name
Having explored the world of the WEEKDAY function and the power of the ‘return_type’ argument, let’s dive into a new task – converting weekday numbers into actual day names. After all, for most people, ‘7’ is just a number while ‘Sunday’ has a whole lot of meaning.
Excel is no stranger to conversions. In fact, it’s a strength of the program that sets it apart from others. I’ll guide you through this process, one step at a time. But remember, the power of Excel comes from practice and continuous learning.
In Excel, we use the TEXT function for such conversions. Here’s a little secret, the TEXT function is a wizard in disguise. It takes a numeric value and converts it into text according to a specified format. So, we’ll use this wizard to convert our weekday numbers to weekday names.
First things first. Assuming you’ve run the WEEKDAY function and found the weekday number, you then need to create the conversion formula.
Consider your weekday number is in cell A1, type the following formula in a new cell:
=TEXT(A1,"dddd")
Hit Enter, and voila, there you have it. A name instead of a number! In this formula, “dddd” is the format code that tells Excel to return the full name of the day (like Monday, Tuesday, etc.).
Need shorter day names? Use “ddd” instead of “dddd”. for example:
=TEXT(A1,"ddd")
So, if your WEEKDAY function returned ‘7’, the TEXT function would convert it to ‘Sun’ or ‘Sunday’ depending on the format code you used.
If you’re dealing with a large dataset, don’t fear. Drag the fill handle from the cell containing your formula to apply this to all required cells. Excel makes it easy to convert hundreds or thousands of values in a jiffy.
Keep this handy tool in your Excel toolbox. It’s a level up in mastering the world of Excel, enabling you to communicate data in a more meaningful and accessible manner.
Onwards we go. Next stop, practical applications of the WEEKDAY function.
Putting It All Together: Finding the Weekday of a Date
Now that we’ve understood the basics of converting numbers into day names using the TEXT function, let’s move on to a more practical application: finding the weekday of a date in Excel.
Excel offers the WEEKDAY function for this exact purpose. Imagine you’re dealing with a dataset containing various dates and you want to find out which day of the week those dates fall on. The WEEKDAY function can make this process a breeze!
This function uses the syntax =WEEKDAY(date, [return_type]). Here, ‘date’ signifies the date of which we want to find the weekday, and ‘return_type’ is an optional parameter deciding the starting day of the week.
Let’s outline the steps involved without further ado:
- Start off by selecting the cell where you want your weekday result to be displayed.
- Type in
=WEEKDAY(in that cell. - Click the cell that contains the date of interest.
- You can enter your desired return type after the date, or simply close the function with
)if you’d like the function to default to Sunday as the first day of the week. - Hit Enter to apply the function to the cell.
You’d have noticed at this point that the output is a number between 1 and 7. This is where you can incorporate the TEXT function we learned previously to convert the resultant number to a day name. Isn’t it amazing to see how these functions work in harmony to make our lives easier?
Conclusion
So there you have it! We’ve explored the ins and outs of finding the weekday of a date in Excel. It’s all about harnessing the power of the WEEKDAY function and pairing it with the TEXT function for a more digestible output. It’s a testament to the versatility of Excel and its ability to make data manipulation a breeze. Remember, practice makes perfect. So don’t hesitate to experiment with these functions in your datasets. With time, you’ll find that these Excel tricks can be real timesavers, streamlining your data analysis and making your spreadsheets more informative. Keep exploring, keep learning, and keep pushing the boundaries of what you can achieve with Excel.
