DATE

Supported, behaves as documented

Category: Date and time · Last tested 2026-09-01

Real compatibility results for the DATE function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.

Support matrix

Engine	Documented	Live-tested	Verdict
Excel (desktop)	Yes	No — documented only	n/a
Excel for the web	—	Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01)	Supported, behaves as documented
Google Sheets	Yes	Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-29)	Supported, behaves as documented
LibreOffice Calc	Yes	Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-07-29)	Supported, behaves as documented

LibreOffice version history

We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when DATE’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.

LibreOffice version	Verdict	Tested
24.2.0.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
24.8.7.2	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
25.2.0.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-08-29
25.8.7.3	Supported, behaves as documented	2026-07-29

Executed test cases

Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)

These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=DATE(2024,3,15)	Ordinary in-range y/m/d construction	45366	45366 Provenance 2024-03-15 = serial 45366 (1900 date system; Dec 31 2023 = 45291, Jan 1 2024 = 45292)	Matched
=DATE(2024,13,1)	Documented rollover: month=13 adds 13 months worth of offset from January, landing in January of the FOLLOWING year rather than raising an error. Verified via https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/date-function-e36c0c8c-4104-49da-ab83-82328b832349 ("If month is greater than 12 ... DATE(2008,14,2) returns ... February 2, 2009")	45658	45658 Provenance month 13 = 12 months past January 2024 -> January 2025; 2025-01-01 = serial 45658 (2024 is a leap year, 366 days after 45292)	Matched
=DATE(2008,-3,2)	Documented rollback: month<=0 subtracts months backward across a year boundary. Verified via the same DATE documentation ("If month is less than 1 ... DATE(2008,-3,2) returns ... September 2, 2007")	39327	39327 Provenance 2007-09-02 = serial 39327	Matched

Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-29 via Drive import)

Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=DATE(2024,3,15)	Ordinary in-range y/m/d construction	45366.0	45366 Provenance 2024-03-15 = serial 45366 (1900 date system; Dec 31 2023 = 45291, Jan 1 2024 = 45292)	Matched
=DATE(2024,13,1)	Documented rollover: month=13 adds 13 months worth of offset from January, landing in January of the FOLLOWING year rather than raising an error. Verified via https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/date-function-e36c0c8c-4104-49da-ab83-82328b832349 ("If month is greater than 12 ... DATE(2008,14,2) returns ... February 2, 2009")	45658.0	45658 Provenance month 13 = 12 months past January 2024 -> January 2025; 2025-01-01 = serial 45658 (2024 is a leap year, 366 days after 45292)	Matched
=DATE(2008,-3,2)	Documented rollback: month<=0 subtracts months backward across a year boundary. Verified via the same DATE documentation ("If month is less than 1 ... DATE(2008,-3,2) returns ... September 2, 2007")	39327.0	39327 Provenance 2007-09-02 = serial 39327	Matched

LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-07-29)

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=DATE(2024,3,15)	Ordinary in-range y/m/d construction	45366.0	45366 Provenance 2024-03-15 = serial 45366 (1900 date system; Dec 31 2023 = 45291, Jan 1 2024 = 45292)	Matched
=DATE(2024,13,1)	Documented rollover: month=13 adds 13 months worth of offset from January, landing in January of the FOLLOWING year rather than raising an error. Verified via https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/date-function-e36c0c8c-4104-49da-ab83-82328b832349 ("If month is greater than 12 ... DATE(2008,14,2) returns ... February 2, 2009")	45658.0	45658 Provenance month 13 = 12 months past January 2024 -> January 2025; 2025-01-01 = serial 45658 (2024 is a leap year, 366 days after 45292)	Matched
=DATE(2008,-3,2)	Documented rollback: month<=0 subtracts months backward across a year boundary. Verified via the same DATE documentation ("If month is less than 1 ... DATE(2008,-3,2) returns ... September 2, 2007")	39327.0	39327 Provenance 2007-09-02 = serial 39327	Matched

Docs & syntax

Excel (desktop): official documentation
Google Sheets: official documentation
LibreOffice Calc: official documentation

Related how-to recipes

Where DATE behaves differently

DAY(1), MONTH(1) and YEAR(1): Excel disagrees with Sheets and LibreOffice
Serial number 1 is Jan 1 1900 in Excel but Dec 31 1899 in both Google Sheets and LibreOffice (executed), so DAY/MONTH/YEAR of a raw serial silently disagree. Why, and how to migrate.

Compared against other functions

DATE vs DATEVALUE: build a date or parse one