What does choosing "last" actually mean?

The final occurrence of the selected weekday in that month, whether the month happens to contain 4 or 5 of that weekday, so the rule always resolves to exactly one real date.

What happens when a month has no 5th occurrence of the chosen weekday?

That month is skipped entirely from the generated list rather than substituting the 4th occurrence or any other nearby date.

Nth-Weekday Recurrence Generator

Pick an ordinal (1st through 5th, or last) and a weekday. Generate the schedule of that weekday's occurrence in each month.

Need a fixed day-of-month rule instead of an ordinal weekday? See Monthly Date Rule Generator.

Worked example

A rule for the third Monday of every month, starting January 2027, generates January 18, then February 15, then March 15, each one genuinely the third Monday of its own month even though the exact day number moves around from month to month. Switch the same rule to the fifth Monday instead, and most months simply produce no occurrence at all, since a fifth occurrence of any given weekday only exists in a month long enough and aligned correctly enough to contain one. Those skipped months are not an error. They are the expected, correct behavior of an nth-weekday rule whose requested occurrence number some months genuinely do not reach.

Common mistakes

Selecting a 5th occurrence for a weekday that many months do not actually have a 5th instance of, then being surprised when several months are skipped entirely rather than substituted with the 4th occurrence.
Confusing this with a fixed day-of-month rule. An nth-weekday rule tracks a specific weekday's position within the month, not a fixed calendar day number.

Limitations

The generated preview is bounded to 500 occurrences or 5 years, whichever limit is reached first, keeping the schedule practical to review in full.

Frequently asked questions

What does choosing "last" actually mean?: The final occurrence of the selected weekday in that month, whether the month happens to contain 4 or 5 of that weekday, so the rule always resolves to exactly one real date.
What happens when a month has no 5th occurrence of the chosen weekday?: That month is skipped entirely from the generated list rather than substituting the 4th occurrence or any other nearby date.