Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Date for Next Wednesday.

Date for Next Wednesday

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 23, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Sam has a date in cell A1 and he would like to calculate the date of the following Wednesday in cell B1. He wonders what formula he should use for the calculation.

There are actually many formulas you can use, and the one you pick is pretty much up to you. Here is a good representative sampling of formulas you can use:

=IF(WEEKDAY(A1)<=4,A1+4-WEEKDAY(A1),A1+11-WEEKDAY(A1))
=A1+WEEKDAY(A1, 1)+CHOOSE(WEEKDAY(A1, 1), 2, 0, -2, -4, 1, -1, -3)
=A1+CHOOSE(WEEKDAY(A1),3,2,1,0,6,5,4)
=A1-MOD(WEEKDAY(A1)-5,7)+6
=A1+MOD(4-WEEKDAY(A1),7)

These formulas return a date that represents next Wednesday, provided that the date in cell A1 isn't a Wednesday to begin with. For instance, if the date in A1 is 5/26/10 (a Wednesday), then each of these will return 5/26/10. However, if the date is 5/27/10 then the formula returns 6/2/10.

If you want a formula that will return the next Wednesday even when the starting date is a Wednesday, then you should rely on a different formula. Choose from one of these:

=A1+IF(WEEKDAY(A1,1)=4,7,IF(WEEKDAY(A1,1)<4,4-WEEKDAY(A1,1),11-WEEKDAY(A1,1)))
=IF(WEEKDAY(A1)<4,A1+4-WEEKDAY(A1),A1+11-WEEKDAY(A1))
=IF(WEEKDAY(A1)=4,A1+7,A1+MOD(4-WEEKDAY(A1),7))
=A1+MOD(4-WEEKDAY(A1),7)+7*(0=MOD(4-WEEKDAY(A1),7))
=A1+7-MOD(4+WEEKDAY(A1,2),7)
=A1+4-WEEKDAY(A1)+IF(WEEKDAY(A1)<4,0,7)
=A1+CHOOSE(WEEKDAY(A1),3,2,1,7,6,5,4)
=A1+(7-MOD(WEEKDAY(A1,3)-2,7))
=A1+4-WEEKDAY(A1)+7*(WEEKDAY(A1)>=4)
=A1-MOD(WEEKDAY(A1)-4,7)+7
=A1+4+((WEEKDAY(A1)>=4)*7)-WEEKDAY(A1)
=A1+MOD(10-WEEKDAY(A1),7)+1
=A1+IF(WEEKDAY(A1) < 4,4,11)-WEEKDAY(A1)
=CEILING(A1-4,7)+4
=A1+6-MOD(A1+2,7)

It should be noted that the last two of these formulas works just fine on the PC but won't work as expected on the Mac. This is because the basis date used for date serial numbers is different on the Mac than it is on the PC, and thus the computations—which operate on the underlying serial numbers for the dates—return different values on each platform.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8623) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Date for Next Wednesday.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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