WEEKDAY
Two questions hide behind "get the weekday", and only one of them is WEEKDAY's job. One wants a number to compare or filter on; the other wants the word Wednesday printed on the sheet, which this function can never produce. Which of the three numbering schemes to pick then matters only because those comparisons depend on it: >5 catches Saturday and Sunday under return_type 2, but Friday and Saturday under the default, where Sunday counts as 1. If nothing in the workbook ever compares the result, the number is doing no work and the question was really about display.
The formula
=WEEKDAY(A2)default: Sunday=1 ... Saturday=7=WEEKDAY(A2, 2)Monday=1 ... Sunday=7 (ISO-style)=WEEKDAY(A2, 3)Monday=0 ... Sunday=6=IF(WEEKDAY(A2, 2) > 5, "Weekend", "Weekday")flag Saturday/Sunday=TEXT(A2, "dddd")the day NAME instead of a numberA worked example
A2 holds the date 2026-08-12, a Wednesday.
=WEEKDAY(A2, 2)
3 — under return_type 2, Monday is 1, Tuesday is 2, Wednesday is 3. The default =WEEKDAY(A2) instead returns 4, since return_type 1 counts Sunday as 1; the number only means something once you know which return_type produced it.
Which one do I need?
| If you want to… | Use |
|---|---|
| You want a plain number for the day of the week | =WEEKDAY(date, [return_type]) |
| You want Monday to count as day 1, not Sunday | Pass return_type 2: =WEEKDAY(date, 2) |
| You want the day's name (Wednesday), not a number | =TEXT(date, "dddd") — WEEKDAY cannot return text, only TEXT can |
| Flagging weekends automatically from a date column | =IF(WEEKDAY(date, 2) > 5, "Weekend", "Weekday") |
Frequently asked questions
Why does WEEKDAY return 2 for a date I know is a Monday?
You're using the default return_type (1, or omitted), which counts Sunday as 1, so Monday becomes 2. Pass 2 as the second argument — =WEEKDAY(A2, 2) — to make Monday count as 1 instead.
Why does WEEKDAY give a #VALUE! error?
WEEKDAY needs a real date value, not text that merely looks like one. If the date came from an import or a text column, wrap it in DATEVALUE first: =WEEKDAY(DATEVALUE(A2), 2).
How do I get the day name instead of a number?
WEEKDAY only ever returns a number. For the name, use TEXT(date,"dddd") for the full name ("Wednesday") or TEXT(date,"ddd") for the short form ("Wed").
Does WEEKDAY work the same in Google Sheets?
Yes — WEEKDAY(date, [type]) takes the identical arguments in Google Sheets, and type 1, 2 and 3 number the days exactly as they do in Excel.
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