YEAR

Return the four-digit year from a date.

Syntax

YEAR(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
=YEAR(DATE(2024,3,15)) 2024
=YEAR(DATE(2024,13,1)) 2025 The rolled month took the year with it.

Not the same as age or duration

YEAR(end) - YEAR(start) is a common way to compute a number of years, and it is wrong. Someone born in December 2000 turns 24 in December 2024, but that subtraction says 24 from January onwards.

DATEDIF with "y" counts completed years and gets it right. Use YEAR for grouping and labelling, not for measuring elapsed time.

Excel compatibility

Matches Excel.

Related functions

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