WEEKDAY
Returns the day of the week as a number: to separate weekdays from weekends in a shift schedule, sales or requests.
WEEKDAY(serial_number, [return_type])- [ ]optional part
- serial_number
- A cell with a date, for example A2.
- return_type
- Which day the week starts on. 2 means Monday. If left out, the count starts on Sunday.Optional
Return value
A number: the day of the week. With type 2, Monday is 1 and Sunday is 7. Without a type, the count starts on Sunday: Sunday is 1, Saturday is 7.
Examples
Weekdays and weekends
fx
A
B
C
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Date
Day of week
02.10.2026
03.10.2026
04.10.2026
05.10.2026
07.10.2026
Sheet1
Details
WEEKDAY returns a number from 1 to 7. Which day counts as the first one is set by the second argument.
Without the second argument the week starts on Sunday: it gets 1, and Saturday gets 7. Type 2 is often more convenient: Monday gets 1, Sunday 7, and anything greater than 5 is a weekend.
Common mistakes
- The second argument is left out, and Monday unexpectedly turns out to be 2 and Sunday 1.
- The result cell has a date format and shows a date from early 1900 instead of the day number. Set the format to General.