Date-related problems - max and datevalue

[Dimitri Ulyinov]

Hey everyone,

I have been given approx. 20,000 rows worth of data, in 3 columns, all of them dates (being in Australia, in dd/mm/yy format) to work with in Excel 2002.

For one of the columns, I have to benchmark it against 2 other dates which I have entered myself and formatted properly as dates.

Problem 1 is when I try and find the latest of these 3 dates (1 given, 2 inputted by me). I have tried
=MAX(I10,$L$1,$B10), where I10 = 1/3/2002 (given), $L$1 = 29/12/1998 (inputted and formatted properly by me), and $B10 = 12/12/1991 (also inputted by me)
but it KEEPS returning 29/12/1998!!! (This is laughable, I opened the dialog box for this formula, and it has them all stored as numbers, and 1/3/2002 is the biggest, yet the answer is still 29/12/1998)

Thinking that this is probably because the given dates haven't been formatted properly as dates, I've used the datevalue function to put them into a recognisable form, with some success. However...

For one of the columns of given data, if a certain event occurred (usually death), it has a date attached to it, but if it didn't occur, no date is attached. However applying datevalue to these empty cells produces a #VALUE! error.

What to do? Can I force Excel to recognise the given data as a proper date, ruling out the need for this date function business and so max works properly? Or if I have to apply date function to everything, how do I get it to return a meaningful value (say, zero), if it encounters an empty cell?

Hope I've expressed myself clearly, and any help would be greatly appreciated,

Regards,

Dimitri Ulyinov,
Sydney, Australia


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[Ardus Petus]

Works by me!

Could you upload your workbook on http://cjoint.com and post back the link?

Cheers,

 

[Ragdyer]

Have you checked that all the sheets and data are using the same date
*system*?
<Tools> <Options> <Calculation> tab,
Check *OR* uncheck,
"1904 Date System"
To match each other.
--
HTH,

RD

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Hey everyone,

I have been given approx. 20,000 rows worth of data, in 3 columns, all of

them dates (being in Australia, in dd/mm/yy format) to work with in Excel
2002.

For one of the columns, I have to benchmark it against 2 other dates which

I have entered myself and formatted properly as dates.

Problem 1 is when I try and find the latest of these 3 dates (1 given, 2 inputted by me). I have tried
=MAX(I10,$L$1,$B10), where I10 = 1/3/2002 (given), $L$1 = 29/12/1998

(inputted and formatted properly by me), and $B10 = 12/12/1991 (also
inputted by me)

but it KEEPS returning 29/12/1998!!! (This is laughable, I opened the

dialog box for this formula, and it has them all stored as numbers, and
1/3/2002 is the biggest, yet the answer is still 29/12/1998)

Thinking that this is probably because the given dates haven't been

formatted properly as dates, I've used the datevalue function to put them
into a recognisable form, with some success. However...

For one of the columns of given data, if a certain event occurred (usually

death), it has a date attached to it, but if it didn't occur, no date is
attached. However applying datevalue to these empty cells produces a #VALUE!
error.

What to do? Can I force Excel to recognise the given data as a proper

date, ruling out the need for this date function business and so max works
properly? Or if I have to apply date function to everything, how do I get it
to return a meaningful value (say, zero), if it encounters an empty cell?

 

[daddylonglegs]

Sounds like your dates in column I are text formatted - try this

select column I
Data > Text to columns > Finish

This should convet these to recogmisable dates