Excel Return Month from Date

What this does

These three read one component out of a date serial number. MONTH returns 1–12, DAY returns 1–31, YEAR returns the four-digit year. The single most common surprise is that MONTH returns a number: to get a month NAME you need =TEXT(A2, "mmmm") for January or "mmm" for Jan, and TEXT returns text, so the result sorts alphabetically rather than chronologically. That is why a report grouped by month name usually runs April, August, December unless the sort is done on the month number and only the display uses TEXT. The second thing worth knowing is that a "month and year" grouping key should not be built by concatenating MONTH and YEAR — =TEXT(A2,"yyyy-mm") gives a key that sorts correctly, and =EOMONTH(A2,0) gives a real date you can chart on a time axis. Finally, these functions need a genuine date: fed text like "03/04/2026" they return #VALUE!, which is the fastest way to discover an imported column never became dates at all. The same idea underpins a lot of everyday Excel work, so the few minutes spent getting it right here pay back across every sheet you build afterwards. Treat it as a pattern, not a one-off, and it stops being something you look up and starts being something you reach for. The difference between a quick fix and a sheet you can trust is the extra minute you spend validating “excel return month from date”. Start on a copy or a tiny sample, keep the affected cells visible, and compare the result with the outcome you expected before you touch the real workbook. When a formula is involved, keep the inputs labelled beside it, reference cells instead of typing values, and apply number formatting only after the result checks out. The point is a workflow that saves repeating the same clicks every week, but the practical win is that someone else can open the file and understand what happened without asking you.

A worked example

A2 holds 2026-08-14. =MONTH(A2) → 8, =YEAR(A2) → 2026, =DAY(A2) → 14. For a label rather than a number, =TEXT(A2,"mmmm") → August. For a grouping key that sorts properly, =TEXT(A2,"yyyy-mm") → 2026-08. To collapse a whole column to month starts for a PivotTable or chart, =EOMONTH(A2,-1)+1 → 2026-08-01. Almost every monthly report starts by splitting a date column into parts, and the two traps — numbers rather than names, and text keys that sort alphabetically — account for most of the wrong-looking summaries that follow. Check the referenced cells, argument order and result type in your workbook. Start with the worked example before changing an input, then compare the changed result with the calculation you expected. An error value or a result of a different type is a reason to inspect the inputs and arguments.

In Google Sheets

Google Sheets support for this task has not been verified. Check the function, arguments and workflow in the target product before transferring the example. Matching formula notation does not establish identical behaviour. Nothing on this page is behind a login or a download: the exact answer is at the top, and the detail below it is there for when you need it. That is the whole promise here — the answer first, and just enough context to make it stick. For “excel return month from date”, keep the input cells and the result visible while you check the formula in Excel. Follow the worked example and change one input at a time. The steps explain the workbook calculation; this page does not run a live calculator for that task.

Common mistakes

• Expecting MONTH to return "August" — it returns 8, and the name needs TEXT.
• Sorting or grouping on a TEXT month name, which orders April, August, December instead of chronologically.
• Building a month-year key as MONTH&YEAR, which makes 12026 for December and sorts nonsensically.
• Running these against text that merely looks like a date and reading #VALUE! as a formula problem rather than a data problem.
• Using =YEAR(TODAY())-YEAR(B2) as an age, which is wrong by up to a year — DATEDIF with "y" is the correct tool.

Frequently asked questions