VBA Month Function

What is Excel VBA Month Function?

The VBA Month function extracts the month component from a given date. The month of the date is represented by an integer that ranges from 1 (January) to 12 (December). When working with dates and needing to extract or manipulate the month portion of a date value, this function comes in handy.

Let us look at an example. Here, we use the Month function to extract the current month from the system date using a straightforward VBA macro. The month component is extracted by the Month function and assigned to the “currentMonth” variable. The extracted month is then combined with the text to create a message. Finally, we use the “VBA MsgBox function” to display the message.

When you run this macro, it will result in a pop-up message box displaying the current month.

What is Excel VBA Month Function?

The VBA Month function extracts the month component from a date. It returns an integer representing the month (1 for January, 2 for February, and so on).
You can assign dates manually or extract them from cells in an Excel worksheet using the Month function.
You can use the Format function to customize the formatting of the month, such as displaying it as two digits (e.g., “02” for February).
Be cautious about potential errors, such as providing an invalid date or mismatched date formats, which can cause issues when using the VBA Month function.

How to Use Month Function in VBA?

To use the Month function in VBA, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open Excel and press ALT + F11 to open the VBA editor.

Step 2: Insert a new module by clicking on “Insert” in the menu and selecting “Module.”

Step 3: Declare Variables

You should declare variables to hold your date values and the extracted month. Here’s an example of how to declare variables:

Dim myDate As Date

Dim myMonth As Integer

In this example, myDate is declared as a VBA Date type to store a date value, and myMonth is declared as an Integer to store the extracted month.

Step 4: Assign a Date Value

You can assign a date value to the myDate variable using various methods.

For example:

myDate = DateSerial(2023, 8, 25) assigns the date “August 25, 2023” to myDate using the DateSerial function.

Step 5: Extract the Month

Use the Month function to extract the month from the myDate variable and store it in a variable.

myMonth = Month(myDate)

Step 6: To see the extracted month, you can display it in a message box or assign it to a cell in Excel. For example, to display it in a message box, we write:

MsgBox “The month is: ” & myMonth

Step 7: Save the macro, close the VBA editor, and then run it to see the output.

Examples

Example #1 – Basic Usage

This example will show you how to use a message box to display the month extracted from a given date.

Step 1: In the new module, we start by creating a subroutine named “BasicMonthExample.”

Step 2: In this step, we declare two variables: myDate to store a date and myMonth to store the extracted month. We then assign the date “August 25, 2023” to myDate using the DateSerial function.

Step 3: We use the Month function to extract the month from the myDate variable and store it in the myMonth variable. Here, myMonth will hold the value 8 because it’s August.

Step 4: We use a message box to display the result. It will show “The month is: 8,” where 8 is the value stored in the myMonth variable.

Step 5: Now, when you run this code, a message box pops up displaying “The month is: 8,” indicating that the month extracted from the date “August 25, 2023” is indeed August.

Here is the complete code:

Sub BasicMonthExample()

Dim myDate As Date

Dim myMonth As Integer

myDate = DateSerial(2023, 8, 25)

myMonth = Month(myDate)

MsgBox “The month is: ” & myMonth

End Sub

Example #2 – Using Cell Values

In this example, we will see how to extract the month from a date stored in cell A1 and display it using a message box.

Step 1: After creating a new subroutine named “MonthFromCell,” we declare two variables, myDate, and myMonth, which will store a date value and the extracted month, respectively.

Step 2: Next, we retrieve the value from cell A1 using Range(“A1”).Value and assign it to the myDate variable.

Step 3: We then use the Month function to extract the month from the myDate variable and store it in myMonth.

Step 4: A message box displays the result with the extracted month.

Step 5: Finally save the VBA macro and click on Run. When you execute this code, it retrieves the date from cell A1, extracts the month, and displays it in a message box.

Here is the complete code:

Sub MonthFromCell()

Dim myDate As Date

Dim myMonth As Integer

myDate = Range(“A1”).Value

myMonth = Month(myDate)

MsgBox “The month is: ” & myMonth

End Sub

Example #3 – Formatting Month as Two Digits

In this example, we will learn how to format a month that is extracted from a given date as two digits with leading zeros, and how to use a message box to display the formatted result.

Step 1: In the new module, we first create a subroutine named “FormatMonth.”

Step 2: We declare myDate to store a date and myMonth to store the formatted month as a string. The date “February 8, 2023” is assigned to myDate.

Step 3: Here, we use the Month function to extract the month (which is 2 for February), and then use the Format function to format it as a two-digit string with leading zeros. The result is assigned to myMonth, which will hold the value “02.”

Step 4: A message box is used to display the result, which will show “The formatted month is: 02” because we’ve formatted the month as two digits.

Step 5: When you execute this code, it assigns the formatted month to myMonth and displays it in a message box as “02,” indicating the two-digit representation of the month.

Here is the full code:

Sub FormatMonth()

Dim myDate As Date

Dim myMonth As String

myDate = DateSerial(2023, 2, 8)

‘ Format the month as two digits

myMonth = Format(Month(myDate), “00”)

MsgBox “The formatted month is: ” & myMonth

End Sub

Important Things To Note

To prevent unexpected outcomes, make sure the date format you choose is appropriate for your system.
To make sure that the extracted month is shown as two digits, such as “01” for January or “12” for December, you can use the VBA Month function Two Digits in conjunction with the Format function.
Rather than expecting an array as its input, the VBA Month function Expected Array expects a valid date. Instead of passing in an array of dates as arguments, you must supply individual date values if you want to extract months from multiple dates.
The VBA Month Function Format function allows you to add personalized formatting to the output of the VBA Month function. It gives you the option to modify the representation or add leading zeros to the month’s presentation.
To convert between month names and month numbers in VBA, you can use the MonthName function to get the month name from a number or create a lookup table for conversions.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: How to get the end of the month in VBA?

To get the end of the month in VBA, the “EOMONTH” function should be used. For example:

endDate = WorksheetFunction.EoMonth(Date, 0)

It will correctly calculate and assign the last day of the current month to the “endDate” variable in VBA.

Q2: Why is the Month function in VBA not working?

The VBA Month function may not work for several reasons:

• If you provide an invalid date as an argument to the VBA Month function, it will not work correctly.
• If there are syntax errors or typographical mistakes in your code that use the VBA Month function, it can prevent the function from working as expected.
• The VBA Month function’s behavior can be affected by the date format used in your system settings. If the date format in your code does not match your system’s date format, it can

Q3: How do you get the month name from a cell in VBA?

In VBA, you can use the MonthName function in conjunction with the VBA Month function to retrieve the month name from a cell. First, use the VBA Month function to extract the month as a number from the cell. Next, translate the numeric month into its matching name using the MonthName function.

Here’s an example:

monthName = Format(Range(“A1”), “mmmm”)

Q4: How to convert month name to month number in VBA?

In VBA, you can use a lookup table or a custom function to convert a month name to a month number. For instance, you could make a worksheet or array with the names of the months and the numbers that correspond to them. Then, you could use a function like Match to determine the number based on the name.

VBA Month Function