4 Ways To Get First Day Of Month In Excel

Working with Dates in Excel: 4 Ways to Get the First Day of the Month

When working with dates in Excel, it's common to need to determine the first day of a given month. This can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as creating schedules, tracking data, or performing calculations. Fortunately, Excel provides several ways to get the first day of the month, and we'll explore four of them in this article.

Method 1: Using the DATE Function

One way to get the first day of the month is by using the DATE function in combination with the YEAR and MONTH functions. The DATE function takes three arguments: year, month, and day. By using the YEAR and MONTH functions to extract the year and month from a given date, you can then use the DATE function to create a new date that corresponds to the first day of that month.

The formula to use is:

=DATE(YEAR(A1), MONTH(A1), 1)

Where A1 is the cell containing the date you want to get the first day of the month for.

Method 2: Using the EOMONTH Function

Another way to get the first day of the month is by using the EOMONTH function, which returns the last day of the month. By subtracting one day from the result, you can get the first day of the next month. However, if you want to get the first day of the same month, you can use the following formula:

=EOMONTH(A1, -1) + 1

Where A1 is the cell containing the date you want to get the first day of the month for.

Method 3: Using a Formula with the DAY Function

You can also use a formula that checks if the day of the month is greater than 1, and if so, subtracts the day minus one from the date. This will effectively move the date back to the first day of the month.

The formula to use is:

=IF(DAY(A1)>1, A1-DAY(A1)+1, A1)

Where A1 is the cell containing the date you want to get the first day of the month for.

Method 4: Using VBA

If you prefer to use VBA, you can create a custom function that takes a date as input and returns the first day of the month. Here's an example of how you can do this:

Function FirstDayOfMonth(dateValue As Date) As Date
    FirstDayOfMonth = DateSerial(Year(dateValue), Month(dateValue), 1)
End Function

To use this function, simply enter the date you want to get the first day of the month for as an argument, like this:

=FirstDayOfMonth(A1)

Where A1 is the cell containing the date you want to get the first day of the month for.

Excel Date Functions Image Gallery

We hope this article has been helpful in showing you four ways to get the first day of the month in Excel. Whether you prefer to use formulas, VBA, or a combination of both, there's a solution here for you. If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask in the comments below.