VBA Weekday Function

The VBA Weekday function is a built-in function in Microsoft Excel and other Office applications that returns a number that corresponds to the day of the week for a given date. It is useful for automating tasks that need to be performed on specific days of the week, such as scheduling reports or reminders.

VBA Weekday Function – Purpose, Syntax and Arguments

Purpose:

The purpose of the Weekday function is to provide a quick and easy way to determine the day of the week for a given date. It can be used in conjunction with other functions and formulas to perform various tasks and calculations based on the day of the week.

Syntax:

The syntax for the Weekday function is as follows:

Weekday (Date, [firstdayofweek])

The ‘Date’ argument is required and specifies the date for which you want to determine the day of the week. The [firstdayofweek] argument is optional and specifies the first day of the week. By default, the first day of the week is set to Sunday (1).

Arguments:

• Date: This is a required argument and can be entered as a cell reference, a date value, or a formula that returns a valid Excel date.
• firstdayofweek: This argument is optional and can be entered as a number or a string to specify the first day of the week. The default value is 1, which corresponds to Sunday. Other possible values are 2 for Monday, 3 for Tuesday, and so on. You can also use the following strings: “Sunday”, “Monday”, “Tuesday”, etc.

Example:

To see the Weekday function in action, let’s say we have a list of dates in column A and we want to determine the day of the week for each date. We can use the following formula in column B:

=Weekday(A2)

This will return a number between 1 and 7 for each date, with 1 being Sunday, 2 being Monday, and so on.

Remarks:

• The Weekday function follows the default setting for the first day of the week in your regional settings. If you want to change this, you can specify the first day of the week using the [firstdayofweek] argument.
• If the [firstdayofweek] argument is set to 2 (Monday), the Weekday function will return a number between 1 and 7, with 1 being Monday, 2 being Tuesday, and so on.
• If the [firstdayofweek] argument is set to 3 (Tuesday), the Weekday function will return a number between 1 and 7, with 1 being Tuesday, 2 being Wednesday, and so on.
• If the [firstdayofweek] argument is set to 7 (Saturday), the Weekday function will return a number between 1 and 7, with 1 being Saturday, 2 being Sunday, and so on.

Important Notes:

• The Weekday function is not to be confused with the ‘WeekdayName’ function, which returns the name of the day of the week instead of the number.
• The Weekday function can also be used in VBA code, with the same syntax and arguments as mentioned above.
• The [firstdayofweek] argument can also be used when using the Weekday function in VBA code.
• The Weekday function can also be used in conjunction with other functions and formulas, such as the ‘IF’ function, to perform more complex tasks based on the day of the week.

The VBA Weekday function is a simple yet powerful tool for determining the day of the week for a given date. By using this function, you can automate tasks and calculations based on the day of the week, making your work more efficient and accurate. Remember to pay attention to the [firstdayofweek] argument and use it accordingly to get the desired results.

Understanding VBA Weekday Function with Examples

VBA Weekday function, which returns a number representing the day of the week (1 for Sunday, 2 for Monday, and so on). In this blog post, we will explore the syntax and use cases of the Weekday function in VBA with several examples.

Example 1: Basic Syntax of Weekday Function

Weekday(date, [firstdayofweek])

The Weekday function takes two arguments: date and firstdayofweek (optional). The date argument is the date whose weekday we want to determine. This argument can be provided as a date literal, variable, or expression that returns a date. The firstdayofweek argument specifies which day is considered the first day of the week (default is Sunday). It can take the values 1 (Monday) to 7 (Sunday).

Code:

Sub Example1()
    Dim myDate As Date
    myDate = "18/03/2021" 'or you can use Date function to get current date
    MsgBox Weekday(myDate, 3) 'will return 4 as Thursday is considered the first day of the week
End Sub

1. Declare a variable named ‘myDate’ of type date.
2. Assign a date value to the variable using either a date literal or the ‘Date’ function.
3. Use the ‘MsgBox’ function to display the result of the Weekday function.
4. The ‘MsgBox’ will return the number 4, indicating that March 18, 2021, falls on a Thursday.

Explanation:

In this example, we have declared a variable named ‘myDate’ and assigned it a date value of March 18, 2021. We then use the ‘MsgBox’ function to display the result of the Weekday function. The optional argument of ‘3’ is used to specify that Thursday is considered the first day of the week. As a result, the function returns the number 4, which corresponds to Thursday.

Example 2: Using the Weekday Function in a Loop

Sometimes, we may need to perform a certain action based on the day of the week. In such cases, we can use the Weekday function in a loop to iterate through a range of dates.

Code:

Sub Example2()
    Dim myDate As Date
    myDate = "18/03/2021"
    Dim i As Integer
    For i = 1 To 7
        If Weekday(myDate, i) = 4 Then
            MsgBox "Today is Thursday!"
        Else
            MsgBox "Today is not Thursday!"
        End If
        myDate = myDate + 1
    Next i
End Sub

1. Declare a variable named ‘myDate’ of type date.
2. Assign a date value to the variable using a date literal.
3. Declare a variable named ‘i’ of type integer.
4. Use a ‘For’ loop with the Weekday function to iterate through the range of dates (in this case, 1 to 7, for each day of the week).
5. Within the loop, use an ‘If’ statement to check if the weekday is 4 (Thursday).
6. If the weekday is 4, display a message indicating that it is Thursday. Otherwise, display a message stating it is not Thursday.
7. The ‘myDate’ variable is incremented by 1 to move to the next day for each iteration of the loop.

Explanation:

In this example, we have used the Weekday function in a loop to go through all the days of a week (from Monday to Sunday). For each day, the function checks if the weekday is equal to 4, which represents Thursday. If it is, a message is displayed stating that it is Thursday. For all other days, a message is displayed stating that it is not Thursday.

Example 3: Returning Weekday Names

The Weekday function in VBA can return the name of the day instead of a number. This can be useful when creating reports or displaying information.

Code:

Sub Example3()
    Dim myDate As Date
    myDate = "18/03/2021"
    MsgBox Format(myDate, "dddd") 'returns "Thursday" as the weekday name
End Sub

1. Declare a variable named ‘myDate’ of type date.
2. Assign a date value to the variable using a date literal.
3. The ‘Format’ function is used to specify the format in which the date should be displayed.
4. Using the “dddd” format code, we can return the weekday name.
5. The ‘MsgBox’ function displays the result as “Thursday”.

Explanation:

In this example, we have used the ‘Format’ function to return the weekday name instead of a number. The “dddd” format code specifies that the function should return the weekday name. In this case, the result is “Thursday”, as March 18, 2021, falls on a Thursday.

Example 4: Using the Weekday Function with Cells

We can also use the Weekday function in VBA to work with data in a worksheet. We can use the function to determine the day of the week for a specific date entered in a cell.

Code:

Sub Example4()
    Dim myDate As Date
    myDate = Range("A1").Value 'assuming date is entered in cell A1
    MsgBox Format(myDate, "dddd")
End Sub

1. Declare a variable named ‘myDate’ of type date.
2. Assign the value of cell A1 to the variable using the ‘Range’ function.
3. We can then use the ‘Format’ function to return the weekday name for the date entered in cell A1.
4. The ‘MsgBox’ function displays the result.

Explanation:

In this example, we have used the ‘Range’ function to assign the value of cell A1 to the ‘myDate’ variable. This allows us to use the Weekday function with data entered in a worksheet. The function then returns the weekday name for the specified date. This is particularly useful when working with large amounts of data and needing to determine the weekday for each date.

Conclusion

The Weekday function in VBA can be a valuable tool in automating tasks and enhancing the functionality of Microsoft Office applications. With its ability to return the day of the week or weekday name, it can be used in a variety of scenarios. In this blog post, we have explored some useful examples of how the Weekday function can be used in VBA. By understanding its syntax and usage, users can leverage this function to make their work more efficient and streamlined.