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Excel

YEAR function in Excel

Converts a serial number to a year

=YEAR(serial_number)

YEAR syntax and parameters

One argument, one required.

  • serial_numbernumberRequired

    The date of the year you want to find. Dates should be entered by using the DATE function, or as results of other formulas or functions. For example, use DATE(2025,5,23) for the 23rd day of May, 2025. Problems can occur if dates are entered as text.

YEAR examples

Formulas you'll actually reuse.

  1. The year of an invoice date, for a yearly SUMIFS:

    =YEAR(B2)

    Result2026

  2. Split rows into current-year and prior-year buckets:

    =IF(YEAR(B2) = YEAR(TODAY()), "This year", "Prior")

YEAR in Google Sheets

Same name — your formula ports as-is.

Try YEAR in the playground

Edit the example — nothing to install.

Preloaded with the YEAR formula from Example 1 — change anything and watch it respond.

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Related functions

More ways Excel gets this done.