DATE in Excel: how to use it
DATE builds a real date from a year, a month and a day. The order is always year, month, day.
Try the first exercises for freeIn the lesson TODAY and DATE
What does DATE do?
DATE makes a real date from three numbers: the year, the month and the day, always in that order. Excel can show a date like that in your country's format, and you can calculate with it.
That's handy if the year, month and day are in separate columns, or if you need a date in a formula: =DATE(2026,12,31) means the same everywhere, while a date typed in quotation marks depends on the regional settings.
When do you use DATE?
- Combining the year, month and day from three columns into one date: =DATE(A2,B2,C2).
- The first day of the month of a date: =DATE(YEAR(A2),MONTH(A2),1).
- A fixed date in a formula, such as a deadline: =DATE(2026,12,31)-TODAY().
- The same day three months later, such as the end of a probation period: =EDATE(A2,3).
Syntax
The syntax is the fixed pattern of a function. The words in the brackets are placeholders: that's where you fill something in yourself, such as a cell, a number or a piece of text. Everything else you type exactly as it is.
A real date from a year, a month and a day.
Filled in: =DATE(A2,B2,C2)
This is how to read the formula, part by part:
| Part | What it means | In the example |
|---|---|---|
= | Every formula starts with an equals sign. Without =, Excel treats what you type as ordinary text. | = |
DATE | The name of the function: that's how Excel knows what to do. You can type it in lower case, Excel puts it in capitals itself. | DATE |
( ) | Straight after the name come the brackets. Inside them is what the function needs to work: the arguments. | ( ) |
year | The year, with four digits. | A2 |
month | The number of the month. A number above 12 carries on into the next year. | B2 |
day | The number of the day. | C2 |
, | A comma separates the arguments from each other. | , |
DATE step by step
D2 contains =DATE(A2,B2,C2). DATE turns the three numbers into one real date. Change the numbers or the formula and see what happens.
This is how to build the formula yourself:
- Click D2 and type DATE with a bracket.
=DATE( - Click the year in A2 and type a comma. The year always comes first.
=DATE(A2, - Click the month in B2, type a comma and click the day in C2.
=DATE(A2,B2,C2 - Close the bracket and press Enter: you get the date 21 July 2026.
=DATE(A2,B2,C2)
More examples
The first of the month
C1 contains =DATE(YEAR(A2),MONTH(A2),1). YEAR and MONTH take the year and the month from A2, and the day becomes 1.
A month that carries on
C2 contains =DATE(A2,B2,1). There's no month 14, so Excel carries on: 1 February 2027. That makes it easy to calculate with months.
Three months later with EDATE
C1 contains =EDATE(A2,3). There's no 31 April, so EDATE gives the last day of April: 30 April.
Calculating with values that run over
=DATE(2026,13,1) gives 1 January 2027. Excel carries on neatly, which makes calculating with months easy.
Where it often goes wrong
- Typing a date in a formula as "01/03/2026" depends on the regional settings: is that 1 March or 3 January? DATE is never ambiguous.
Practise this in the lesson TODAY and DATE. The first exercises are free.
Frequently asked questions
How do I add months?
With EDATE.
Read next
YEAR, MONTH and DAYTODAYDATEDIFNETWORKDAYSCalculating with time