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The Excel DAY Function

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Basic Description

The Excel DAY function, when supplied with a date, returns an integer representing the day of the month (from 1 - 31).

DAY( date )

where the date argument can be supplied to the function as either :

  • A date returned from another formula or function
or
  • A references to a cell containing a date

Warning: If you attempt to input the date argument as text, there is a chance that Excel may misinterpret this, due to different date systems, or date interpretation settings.

Also note that, although you can input the date argument as a serial number, this is not recommended, as the serial numbering may vary across different computer systems.


Day Function Examples

The following example shows the function used to extract the day from 3 different dates. The spreadsheet on the left shows the format of the function and the spreadsheet on the right shows the results for the 3 dates.

 Formulas:
  A B
1 31-May-2010 =DAY( A1 )
2 21-Mar-1984 =DAY( A2 )
3   =DAY( DATE(2010, 1, 1) )
 Results:
  A B
1 31-May-2010 31
2 21-Mar-1984 21
3   1

Note that, in the above examples, as recommended by Microsoft, the date value is always supplied as either a reference to a cell containing a date, or as a value returned from another function.


Further examples of the Excel Day function can be found on the Microsoft Office website.


Excel Day Function Common Problem

Common Problem:

The result of your Excel Day function looks like a date (eg. "01/01/1900"), instead of returning an integer.

Solution:

This problem arises because the new cell or column is formatted as a 'date'. - In this case, it is only the formatting of the cell that is wrong, NOT the value returned by the function.

To correct this,

  • Highlight the cell(s) with the wrong formatting
  • Right click with the mouse
  • Select the Format Cells ... option and ensure the Number tab is selected
  • Under the Category heading, select the option General and click OK

- See the Excel Formatting page for more details on formatting in Excel.





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