While you are working in Excel you may not always need the full date in some cases because the full date takes more space and may be unnecessary. So if you want to keep the month and year only then there are several ways to do it in Excel. This article will show you those helpful ways to use a formula for the current month and year in Excel with sharp steps and vivid images.
Excel Formula for Current Month and Year: 3 Examples
To demonstrate the methods, we’ll use the following dataset that represents some gadgets’ order date at a store. Here the order dates are the current date and the dates are in full form, go forward to learn how to keep month and year only.
1. Use the MONTH and YEAR Functions in a Formula for Current Month and Year in Excel
First, we’ll learn how to combine the MONTH and YEAR and TODAY functions in a formula to return the current month and year only.
Steps:
- Activate Cell C5 by clicking it.
- Then type the following formula in it-
=MONTH(TODAY()) & "-" & YEAR(TODAY())
- Then just press the Enter button on your keyboard and you will get the current month and year.
- Finally, drag down the Fill Handle icon to copy the formula for the other cells.
Soon after you will get the month and year for your current date.
Read More: Get the First Day of the Current Month in Excel
2. Use the TEXT Function Formula in Excel for Current Month and Year in Excel
Now we’ll use the TEXT function in this method to return the current month and year.
Steps:
- Write the following formula in Cell C5–
=TEXT(TODAY(),"mmm/yyy")
- Later, press the Enter button to get the output.
- To get the other output, just drag down the Fill Handle icon over the cells C6:C8.
Here are all the outputs-
Note:
- =TEXT(TODAY(), “mm/yy”) will return as- 03/22.
- =TEXT(TODAY(), “mm-yy”) will return as- 03-22.
- =TEXT(TODAY(), “mm-yyyy”) will return as- 03-2022.
- =TEXT(TODAY(), “mmm, yyyy”) will return as- Mar, 2022.
- =TEXT(TODAY(), “mmmm, yyyy”) will return as- March, 2022.
Read More: How to Get First Day of Month from Month Name in Excel
3. Use the DATE, MONTH, and YEAR Functions for Current Month and Year in Excel
In our last method, we’ll combine 3 functions to return the current month and year in Excel. The functions are the DATE, MONTH, and YEAR Functions.
Steps:
- In Cell C5 type the following formula-
=DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),MONTH(TODAY()),DAY(TODAY()))
- Then press the Enter button and then you will get the full current date.
- Use the Fill Handle tool to get the other outputs.
Now we’ll have to change the format to get only the month and year from the dates.
- Click the shortcut icon from the Number section of the Home tab as shown in the image below.
Soon after it will take you to the date formatting dialog box directly.
- Select an option from the two options as marked in the image below.
- Then just press OK.
Now you see that all the dates are converted to month and year only.
💭 Formula Breakdown:
➤ DAY(TODAY())
The DAY function will return the day number from the current date extracted by the TODAY function. So it will return as-
23
➤ MONTH(TODAY())
The MONTH function will return the month number from the current date extracted by the TODAY function and will return as-
3
➤ YEAR(TODAY())
The YEAR function will return the year number from the current date extracted by the TODAY function and then will return as-
2022
➤ DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),MONTH(TODAY()),DAY(TODAY()))
Finally, the DATE function will return the full date combining the outputs of the DAY, MONTH, and YEAR functions. So the final output will return as-
3/23/2022
Read More: How to Calculate First Day of Previous Month in Excel
Convert Date to Month and Year Using Excel Number Formatting
In this section, we’ll learn an alternative way to return the current month and year by changing the format setting. I have extracted the order dates using the TODAY function here.
Steps:
- Select the dates.
- Later, click the shortcut icon from the Number section of the Home tab to open the Format Cells dialog box.
It will take you Number format setting directly.
- At this moment, select one option from the two red-marked options as shown in the image below.
- Finally, just press OK.
Then you will get the month and year only from the current date.
Check If Current Date Has Same Month and Year as Any Other Date
Let’s learn another related thing. We’ll check the current date whether it has the same month and year as another date or not. For that, I have placed some random dates in column C and added a new checker column D to check the current date.
Steps:
- Type the following formula in cell D5–
=MONTH(C5)&YEAR(C5)=MONTH(TODAY())&YEAR(TODAY())
- Press the Enter button to finish.
- To check the other dates, drag down the Fill Handle icon.
Two dates matched and two dates didn’t match.
Download Practice Workbook
You can download the free Excel template from here and practice on your own.
Conclusion
I hope the procedures described above will be good enough to use a formula for the current month and year in Excel. Feel free to ask any question in the comment section and please give me feedback.