Basic Reporting Part V FAQ: How to Convert Month Numbers to Month Names

Basic Reporting Pat V FAQ: How to Convert Month Numbers to Month Names

1. By default, months are displayed on a report as a number (date fields are formatted xx/xx/xxxx and pulling out the month portion of a date just pulls out the numbers used for the month in the date). For aesthetic reasons, users may prefer to convert the month from a number to a name (e.g. convert “1” to “January”.)
2. Using the “Month Name” function, user can convert a date month from a number (e.g. 1-12) to the corresponding month name (e.g. “1” would be converted to January).
3. To get started, add a date field to a report.
4. Click on the date field to highlight the cell and then click on the function/formula editor (fx) button.

5. On the formula editor, select the Date category, and then add select/Add the “Month” function to the date field. This will pull out the month portion of the date. However, the date will still appear on the report as a number.

6. To convert that number to a name, select the Month Name function and add it to the formula. Make sure to put it before the “Month” function and make sure you have nested all of the parentheses correctly.

7. Click okay to close the formula editor
8. You will see the formula has been added to the report.

9. Now when you run the report, the date is displayed as the month name.

10. You cannot use the Month Name function without first using the Month function – the Month Name function will not work by itself.
11. Using the Month function by itself, you can sort and group dates by month, rather than in chronological order of date.
12. For instance, using the date function in the sorts tab, will allow us to sort our donations by month regardless of day and year made. In this example, we have sorted by month first, then by date after that. As you can see in the screenshots below, the result is that all donations made in January are listed first (in chronological order), then all donations made in February, etc.

13. We can add a group header to the report for the Month and use the Month Name function to convert that header to the month name to make the report easier to read.

14. The Month and Month Name functions can be very useful when working with cross-tab reports in that they allow you to see data by month, rather than by chronological date and/or instead of by month (for instance, if we wish to see all of our 2016 donations, totaled by month).

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