WORKDAY function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

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What is WORKDAY function in Excel?

WORKDAY function is one of Date and Time functions in Microsoft Excel that returns a number that represents a date that is the indicated number of working days before or after a date (the starting date). Working days exclude weekends and any dates identified as holidays. Use WORKDAY to exclude weekends or holidays when you calculate invoice due dates, expected delivery times, or the number of days of work performed.

Tip: To calculate the serial number of the date before or after a specified number of workdays by using parameters to indicate which and how many days are weekend days, use the WORKDAY.INTL function.

Syntax of WORKDAY function

WORKDAY(start_date, days, [holidays])

The WORKDAY function syntax has the following arguments:

  • Start_date: A date that represents the start date.
  • Days: The number of nonweekend and nonholiday days before or after start_date. A positive value for days yields a future date; a negative value yields a past date.
  • Holidays (Optional): An optional list of one or more dates to exclude from the working calendar, such as state and federal holidays and floating holidays. The list can be either a range of cells that contain the dates or an array constant of the serial numbers that represent the dates.
Worked Example:   How to calculate Next working/business day in Excel

Important: Dates should be entered by using the DATE function, or as results of other formulas or functions. For example, use DATE(2008,5,23) for the 23rd day of May, 2008. Problems can occur if dates are entered as text.

Worked Example:   Calculate series of dates by workdays in Excel

WORKDAY formula explanation

  • Microsoft Excel stores dates as sequential serial numbers so they can be used in calculations. By default, January 1, 1900 is serial number 1, and January 1, 2008 is serial number 39448 because it is 39,448 days after January 1, 1900.
  • If any argument is not a valid date, WORKDAY returns the #VALUE! error value.
  • If start_date plus days yields an invalid date, WORKDAY returns the #NUM! error value.
  • If days is not an integer, it is truncated.

Example of WORKDAY function

Worked Example:   How to generate random date between two dates in Excel

Steps to follow:

1. Open a new Excel worksheet.

2. Copy data in the following table below and paste it in cell A1

Note: For formulas to show results, select them, press F2 key on your keyboard and then press Enter.

You can adjust the column widths to see all the data, if need be.

Data
10/1/2008 Start date
151 Days to completion
11/26/2008 Holiday
12/4/2008 Holiday
1/21/2009 Holiday
Formula Description (Result) Result
=WORKDAY(A2,A3) Date 151 workdays from the start date (4/30/2009) 4/30/2009
=WORKDAY(A2,A3,A4:A6) Date 151 workdays from the start date, excluding holidays (5/5/2009) 5/5/2009

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