Dates function
DAY
Which day of the month is this?
Purpose
Pull the day of the month out of a date
Returns
A number from 1 to 31
Syntax
=DAY(date)
| Argument | Required | What goes here |
|---|---|---|
date | Required | The cell holding the date, usually A2. |
How to use DAY
DAY gives back the day of the month and nothing else. It does not say which month or which year.
It is the least used of the three date parts, because the questions an accountant asks are mostly about periods rather than about the number on a calendar.
Where it earns its place is rebuilding a date with DATE, and testing a day-of-month rule such as a direct debit that runs on the first.
Examples
Every result below is worked out by the same evaluator that marks your answers, on the sheet shown here.
| A | B | C | D | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reporting date | 2026-10-31 | |||
| 2 | |||||
| 3 | Invoice | Invoice date | Terms (days) | Amount | Customer |
| 4 | INV-9001 | 2026-07-14 | 30 | 1200 | Calder Utilities |
| 5 | INV-9002 | 2026-08-29 | 30 | 640 | Brightwell Paper |
| 6 | INV-9003 | 2026-09-03 | 45 | 3100 | Meridian Freight |
| 7 | INV-9004 | 2026-09-30 | 14 | 455 | Thornbury Print |
| 8 | INV-9005 | 2026-10-12 | 30 | 2080 | Calder Utilities |
| 9 | INV-9006 | 2026-10-27 | 60 | 725 | Ashgrove Catering |
| Formula | Result |
|---|---|
=DAY(B4)The fourteenth. | 14 |
=DAY(B1)The reporting date falls on the thirty-first, which is a month end. | 31 |
=DATE(YEAR(B4),MONTH(B4),1)The first of the invoice month, built from the parts. DAY is the piece being replaced here. | 2026-07-01 |
Notes
- EOMONTH is the better way to reach a month end than testing whether DAY is 28, 30 or 31.
Related
Practise DAY in Unit 25
A reference tells you what it does. A unit makes you use it.