=YEAR(date)
If you need to extract the year from a date, you can use the YEAR function. In the generic form of the formula above, the date must be in a form that Excel recognizes as a valid date.
Here’s how the formula works:
The YEAR function takes just one argument, the date from which you want to extract the year. In the example, the formula is:
=YEAR(B5)
B4 contains a date value for Decamber 6, 2009. The YEAR function returns the number 2009 representing the year of the date.
Note that you can use YEAR to extract the year from a day entered as text:
=YEAR("12/6/2009")
However, using text for dates can cause unpredictable results on computers using different regional date settings. In general it’s better (and more flexible) to supply an address to a cell that already contains a valid date.
