In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the WEEKDAY function in Google Sheets
How to Use the WEEKDAY function in Google Sheets
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Have you ever wanted to know the day of the week a particular date falls under? We can use the WEEKDAY function in Google Sheets to easily convert a date to a number that represents a particular day of the week.
For example, the formula =WEEKDAY(“1/1/2019”) returns a value of 3 corresponding to a Tuesday. By default, a value of 1 corresponds to a date that falls on Sunday.
Once we find the day of the week through WEEKDAY, we can use the result with other functions to handle calculations that depend on the day of the week. For example, we can apply different rates for a service depending on whether the customer avails of the service on the weekend.
In this guide, we will show you how to use the WEEKDAY function to convert a date to the day of the week in Google Sheets.
How to Find the Day of the Week in Google Sheets
Here’s how to find the day of the week given a particular date in Google Sheets.
Step 1
First, select an empty cell to place the WEEKDAY function.
In this example, we’ll start by selecting the cell B2 where we wish to convert the date stored in cell A2.
Step 2
Next, type the WEEKDAY function and enter the date you want to find the day of the week of as the argument.
In this example, we want to know what day the date January 1st, 2019 falls under.
Step 3
Hit the Enter key to evaluate the function. The WEEKDAY function will output an integer that corresponds to a particular day of the week. By default, the number ‘1’ represents Sunday, the number ‘2’ represents Monday, and so on.
However, the user may also include an optional second argument to change how the output is computed.
If the user sets the type to 1, weekdays are counted from Sunday and the value of Sunday is 1.
If the user sets the type to 2, days are counted starting from Monday with a value of 1.
If the user sets the type to 3, days are counted from Monday starting with a value of 0.
Step 4
Use the AutoFill tool to find the day of the week of the remaining dates.
Step 5
While the WEEKDAY function is useful if you’re expecting a particular integer value, it will be difficult for users to know what day of the week the numbers are referring to.
We can use the CHOOSE function to output the actual day of the week given a particular number.
Step 6
Additionally, we can use the output of the WEEKDAY function as a search key for a VLOOKUP table.
For example, we can create a sheet that returns what type of workout to do on a particular date. We simply need to add a VLOOKUP formula that uses the WEEKDAY output as a lookup value.
Summary
This guide should be everything you need to use the WEEKDAY function in Google Sheets.
You may make a copy of this example spreadsheet to test it out on your own.