Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Calculating the Day of the Year.

Calculating the Day of the Year

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 23, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365

You've probably seen it on calendars before—some include an indication that "Today is the 123 day of the year with 242 remaining." You can easily calculate the day number of a year, as well as how many are remaining. For instance, let's assume you have a date in cell D27. You could use the following formulas to calculate, respectively, what day of the year it is and how many are still left:

=TRUNC(D27)-DATE(YEAR(D27)-1,12,31)
=DATE(YEAR(D27),12,31)-TRUNC(D27)

Using these formulas, the result of 1/1/2023 in cell D27 would be 1 and 364, respectively, meaning it is the first day of the year. (This is as it should be.)

Of course, once you enter the formulas, you need to format the cells as regular numbers. (Excel will, by default, try to format the cells as dates.) With the two cells selected, follow these steps:

  1. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
  2. Click the small icon at the lower-right corner of the Number group. Excel displays the Format Cells dialog box.
  3. Make sure the Number tab is selected.
  4. In the Category list, choose Number. (See Figure 1.)

    5. Figure 1. The Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box.

  5. Make sure the Decimal Places option is set to 0.
  6. Click on OK.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8727) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Calculating the Day of the Year.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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