Final answer:
The Access function that examines a date and returns a portion of the date is the DatePart function, which allows extraction of specific components like year, month, or day from a date value.
Step-by-step explanation:
The function in Microsoft Access that examines a date and returns a specified part of that date is known as the DatePart function. This function is used to retrieve just one component of a date value, such as the year, month, or day. The syntax for the DatePart function is DatePart(interval, date, [firstdayofweek], [firstweekofyear]) where the interval defines the part of the date to retrieve, and the date is the actual date value from which to extract the part.