How to use the WEEKDAY function in Excel

In this article, we will learn How to use the WEEKDAY function in Excel.

What is a weekday ?

Usually we recall days with either date value or the weekday value. For example 4th Sunday of October, Sunday is the weekday associated with the date. There are 7 weekdays in a week. With each date having its own weekday. Weekdays : Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

In Excel, dates are considered as numbers in Excel whereas weekdays are text values. So WEEKDAY function returns the weekday of the input date value. Let's learn WEEKDAY function syntax and an example to illustrate the function usage.

WEEKDAY Function in Excel

The WEEKDAY function takes the date value ( as number ) in the argument and return number corresponding to the weekday.

Syntax:

date_value : date value as number or using cell reference

The function has a different return_type (optional) argument. Learn return_type argument from the table.

Note: the WEEKDAY function will return a value even when the date is empty. Take care to trap this result if blank cells are possible in the list.

Example :

All of these might be confusing to understand. Let's understand how to use the function using an example. Here we have Dates and Return Types as arguments for the Function.

Use the formula:

The formula returned 3. Tuesday is for 3 when return type is 1 i.e. Sunday - Saturday

Copy the formula in other cells using Shortcutkey Ctrl + D.

Weekday number 1 when the return type is 3. The number represents Tuesday.

Weekday number 6 when the return type is 14. The number represents Tuesday. Get the Nth weekday of month in Excel here.

Weekday name

Now If you wish to get the name of the weekday using TEXT function.

Use the Formula:

Here TEXT function returns the weekday name.

Here are all the observational notes using the WEEKDAY function in Excel
Notes :

1. The formula only works with date values.
2. Date as argument to the function be given as cell reference or else the formula returns error.
3. Change the format of the cell to long date format using the Ctrl + 1 or select the format cell option from Home > Number option.
4. The argument array must be of the same length as the function.

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