| DateSerial Function |
Named Arguments
Yes
Syntax
DateSerial(year, month, day)
year
Use: Required
Data Type: Integer
Number between 100 and 9999, inclusive, or a numeric expression.
month
Use: Required
Data Type: Integer
Any numeric expression to express the month between 1 and 12.
day
Use: Required
Data Type: Integer
Any numeric expression to express the day between 1 and 31.
Return Value
Variant (Date).
Description
Returns a Variant 7 data subtype (a date) from the three date components (year, month, and day). For the function to succeed, all three components must be present, and all must be numeric values. The value returned by the function takes the short date format defined by the Regional Settings applet in the Control Panel of the client machine.
Rules at a Glance
If the value of a particular element exceeds its normal limits, DateSerial adjusts the date accordingly. For example, if you tried DateSerial (96,2,31)—February 31, 1996—DateSerial returns March 2, 1996.
You can specify expressions or formulas that evaluate to individual date components as parameters to DateSerial. For example, DateSerial (98,10+9,23) returns 23 March 1999. This makes it easier to use DateSerial to form dates whose individual elements are unknown at design-time or that are created on the fly as a result of user input.
Example
Dim iYear As Integer Dim iMonth As Integer Dim iday As Integer iYear = 1987 iMonth = 3 + 11 iday = 16 MsgBox DateSerial(iYear, iMonth, iday)
Programming Tips and Gotchas
If any of the parameters exceed the range of the Integer data type (–32,768 to 32,767), an error (runtime error 6, "Overflow") is generated.
The Microsoft documentation for this function incorrectly states, "For the year argument, values between and 99, inclusive, are interpreted as the years 1900–1999." In fact, DateSerial handles two-digit years in the same way as other Visual Basic date functions. A year argument between and 29 is taken to be in the 21st Century (2000 to 2029), year arguments between 30 and 99 are taken to be in the 20th Century (1930 to 1999). Of course, the safest way to specify a year is to use the full four digits.