YEAR function

The Excel YEAR function is used to extract the year from a date. It is a simple and handy function that can help you work with dates in your spreadsheets, such as calculating age, tracking milestones, or sorting data by year.

Syntax

YEAR(serial_number)

Arguments

serial_numberThe date from which you want to extract the year.

How to use

The YEAR function is quite straightforward to use. You provide it with a date, and it returns the year from that date. Here’s how you can use it:

Suppose you have a date in cell A1, and you want to extract the year from it. You can enter the following formula in a different cell:

Examples

If cell A1 contains the date 01/15/2023, the formula =YEAR(A1) would return 2023.

If cell A1 contains the date 05/10/2000, the formula =YEAR(A1) would return 2000.

Keep in mind that the YEAR function only returns the year and not the full date. It’s a great tool for simplifying date-related calculations in your Excel spreadsheets.

Tomasz Decker is an Excel specialist, skilled in data analysis and financial modeling.