Excel WEEKDAY Function
This tutorial is talking about the formula syntax and usage of WEEKDAY function in Excel.
Description of WEEKDAY function
Description of WEEKDAY function
The Microsoft Excel WEEKDAY function returns an integer number from 1 to 7 to represent the day of the week for a given date in Excel.
Syntax of WEEKDAY function
=WEEKDAY (serial_number, [return_type])
Arguments of syntax
- Serial_number – the date you will get the day of the week based on.
Tips: The serial_number has several input methods as follows:
1. You can directly reference to a cell contains date: =WEEKDAY(C1, 1).
2. A date can be typed as text string by embracing with quotation marks: =WEEKDAY("2018/12/26",1).
3. Directly enter dates as serial numbers: =WEEKDAY("43460",1) (43460 represents date 12/26/2018). - Return_type – This argument is optional. The default return type is 1.
The below table can help you to know more about the return_type argument.
Return Type | Number returned | Day scope |
1 or omitted | 1-7 | Sunday-Saturday |
2 | 1-7 | Monday-Sunday |
3 | 0-6 | Monday-Sunday |
11 | 1-7 | Monday-Sunday |
12 | 1-7 | Tuesday-Monday |
13 | 1-7 | Wednesday-Tuesday |
14 | 1-7 | Thursday-Wednesday |
15 | 1-7 | Friday-Thursday |
16 | 1-7 | Saturday-Friday |
17 | 1-7 | Sunday-Saturday |
Remark: For the same dates, different return_types will cause different results with the WEEKDAY function.
Example of WEEKDAY function
For getting day of week based on a given date, please do as follows.
1. Click on the cell you want to output the result, enter formula =WEEKDAY(B5,1) into the Formula Bar and press the Enter key.
2. Keep selecting the result cell, drag the Fill Handle down to apply the formula to other cells.
Notes:
1. C4 is the date cell you will get day of the week based on.
2. If you want some specified the start day and end day of a week, such as starts on Monday and ends with Sunday, you can choose number 2 as the return_type in the formula. See screenshot:
For the result number of above screenshot, 3 representing Wednesday of the week, 4 is Thursday of the week, 5 and 6 representing Friday and Saturday.