Previous month with month name in google sheets

Question

I have a month "August" and need a formula that gives me the name of the month before.

=TEXT(EDATE("August"; -1); "MMMM")

This does not work, as EDATE expects a DATE(). Can anyone advice?

Answer 1

All you need is the following formula:

=text(EDATE(today();-1); "MMMM")

Answer 2

if you can use month as a number, I would recommend you

=TEXT(EDATE(DATE(2016, 8, 1); -1); "MMMM")

for example

If not

=TEXT(EDATE(DATE(DATEVALUE("August 01, 2016")); -1); "MMMM")