The DATE function returns a date value to a cell given a number of years, months and days.

• The syntax for the function is DATE (year, month, day) .

The function requires three arguments:

• "year" must have a value between 1900 and 9999. If the "year" is below 1899 the year value is added to 1900,
• "month" must be vetween 0 and 12.
• and "day" a value bertween 0 and 31.

These values are then converted into a "date value" decimal which is automatically recognized as a date displayed of the form: " month : day : year " by default unless the cell containting the function is reformatted.

If the number of months is greater than 12 then the date function will add an appropriate value to the number of years. For example: DATE (2004,23,24) = Nov 24, 2005.

When the number of days exceeds the number of days in an associated date, the DATE function will add the appropiate number of months e.g. DATE (2002, 4, 31) = May 1, 2002.

Note: To see the "date value" as a decimal reformat the cell as a number e.g. DATE(2007, 1, 17) = 39099.