Extract Month from Date in Excel

Introduction to Date Functions in Excel

When working with dates in Excel, it’s often necessary to extract specific parts of the date, such as the month, day, or year. Excel provides several functions to manipulate dates, including the MONTH, DAY, and YEAR functions. In this article, we’ll focus on extracting the month from a date in Excel.

Using the MONTH Function

The MONTH function in Excel returns the month of a date as a number between 1 (January) and 12 (December). The syntax for the MONTH function is:

MONTH(serial_number)

Where serial_number is the date from which you want to extract the month.

Examples of Using the MONTH Function

Here are a few examples of using the MONTH function in Excel:

• =MONTH(A1) - Extracts the month from the date in cell A1.
• =MONTH(“2022-07-25”) - Extracts the month from the date “2022-07-25”, returning 7.
• =MONTH(TODAY()) - Extracts the month from the current date.

Using the TEXT Function to Format the Month

If you want to display the month as a text string (e.g., “January” instead of 1), you can use the TEXT function in combination with the MONTH function. The syntax for the TEXT function is:

TEXT(value, format_text)

Where value is the date from which you want to extract the month, and format_text is the format you want to apply to the month.

Examples of Using the TEXT Function to Format the Month

Here are a few examples of using the TEXT function to format the month:

• =TEXT(A1, “mmm”) - Displays the month as a three-letter abbreviation (e.g., “Jan”).
• =TEXT(A1, “mmmm”) - Displays the month as a full name (e.g., “January”).
• =TEXT(A1, “mm”) - Displays the month as a two-digit number (e.g., “01”).

Table of Month Formats

The following table shows the different formats you can use to display the month:

Format Code	Example Output
mmm	Jan
mmmm	January
mm	01
m	1

📝 Note: The MONTH function assumes that the date is in the format mm/dd/yyyy. If your date is in a different format, you may need to adjust the function accordingly.

In summary, extracting the month from a date in Excel can be easily done using the MONTH function. You can also use the TEXT function to format the month as a text string. By using these functions, you can efficiently manipulate dates in your Excel spreadsheets.