Get Weekday from Date in Excel

Introduction to Getting Weekday from Date in Excel

When working with dates in Excel, it’s often necessary to determine the day of the week for a given date. This can be useful for various applications, such as scheduling, planning, and data analysis. Excel provides several functions to achieve this, including the WEEKDAY function. In this article, we will explore how to use the WEEKDAY function and other methods to get the weekday from a date in Excel.

Using the WEEKDAY Function

The WEEKDAY function in Excel returns the day of the week as a number, where Sunday is 1 and Saturday is 7. The syntax for the WEEKDAY function is as follows: WEEKDAY(serial_number, [return_type]) - serial_number: The date for which you want to find the day of the week. - [return_type]: Optional. A number that specifies the day of the week and the way the week is represented. - 1 (Default): Sunday (1) through Saturday (7) - 2: Monday (1) through Sunday (7) - 3: Monday (0) through Sunday (6)

To use the WEEKDAY function, follow these steps: - Enter the date in a cell, for example, A1. - In another cell, enter the formula: =WEEKDAY(A1) - Press Enter to get the day of the week as a number.

Converting Weekday Number to Name

While the WEEKDAY function returns a number representing the day of the week, you might want to display the actual day name (e.g., Monday, Tuesday, etc.). You can achieve this by combining the WEEKDAY function with the CHOOSE function or by using the TEXT function.

Using the CHOOSE function: =CHOOSE(WEEKDAY(A1), “Sunday”, “Monday”, “Tuesday”, “Wednesday”, “Thursday”, “Friday”, “Saturday”)

Using the TEXT function: =TEXT(A1, “dddd”)

Alternative Methods

Besides the WEEKDAY function, there are other methods to find the day of the week from a date in Excel.

• Using VBA: You can write a User-Defined Function (UDF) in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to return the day of the week. However, this method is more complex and is generally used for more customized solutions.
• Using Power Query: For those familiar with Power Query (available in Excel 2010 and later versions), you can add a custom column that extracts the day of the week from a date column. This method is particularly useful when working with large datasets.

Applications and Examples

Determining the day of the week from a date has numerous applications in Excel, including: - Scheduling: Identifying weekdays for scheduling appointments or meetings. - Financial Analysis: Calculating weekdays for business days in financial calculations. - Data Analysis: Filtering data by specific days of the week for analysis purposes.

For example, if you have a list of dates and you want to filter out weekends, you can use the WEEKDAY function in a filter criteria to only show weekdays.

Date	Weekday
2023-04-01	=WEEKDAY(A2)
2023-04-02	=WEEKDAY(A3)

📝 Note: The WEEKDAY function considers the locale settings of your computer for determining the first day of the week. Ensure your computer's locale settings match your requirements for accurate results.

Conclusion and Summary

In conclusion, getting the weekday from a date in Excel can be efficiently achieved using the WEEKDAY function, among other methods. Understanding how to apply this function and its variations can significantly enhance your ability to analyze and manipulate date-related data in Excel. Whether for scheduling, financial calculations, or data analysis, determining the day of the week is a fundamental skill that can streamline your workflow and improve productivity.