How to use YEAR in Excel
The year of a date.
Syntax
serial_numberA date or cellExample
Here’s YEAR on a small table of orders. The highlighted cells are the ones the formula reads.
=YEAR(DATE(2026,11,2))Edit this formula live Change the ranges and watch the answer update. Free, no sign-up.
Common mistakes with YEAR
Text dates don’t work reliably
If a date is stored as text, YEAR may return #VALUE!. Convert it with DATEVALUE first.
Use it for grouping
A helper column with =YEAR(A2) makes yearly totals with SUMIF easy.
What the error messages mean
Type these slips into Gridwise and this is the feedback you get:
Leaving off the closing bracket
=YEAR(DATE(2026,11,2)
Parentheses don’t match. You have 2 opening and 1 closing parentheses. Every ( needs a ).
Questions
What does the YEAR function do in Excel?
The year of a date. The syntax is YEAR(serial_number).
Why is my YEAR formula giving the wrong answer?
Text dates don’t work reliably: If a date is stored as text, YEAR may return #VALUE!. Convert it with DATEVALUE first. Use it for grouping: A helper column with =YEAR(A2) makes yearly totals with SUMIF easy.
Does YEAR work in Google Sheets?
Most Excel functions, including the core ones on this page, work the same way in Google Sheets. A few newer functions arrived in Sheets later or behave slightly differently, so test it on your own data.