MONTH
Return the month, 1 to 12, from a date.
Syntax
MONTH(serial_number)| Argument | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
serial_number | Required | A date, usually a cell reference or a DATE() call. |
Examples
Every example below was executed against VisiGrid engine 0.31.0 — not
transcribed from another vendor's documentation. Reproduce any of them with vgrid calc.
| Formula | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|
=MONTH(DATE(2024,3,15)) | 3 | |
=MONTH(DATE(2024,13,1)) | 1 | Month 13 rolled into January of the following year. |
Grouping by month needs the year too
MONTH alone collapses every March together, which is rarely what a report
wants:
=YEAR(A1) & "-" & MONTH(A1)That distinguishes March 2024 from March 2025. For sorting, pad the month —
RIGHT with REPT — so 2024-03
sorts before 2024-10 rather than after it.
Returning a number rather than a name is deliberate: names do not sort and do not translate. If you need “March”, build a lookup from the number.
Excel compatibility
Matches Excel.