Find the earliest date in a range of dates?

[Rachel Williams]

I am trying to use a function that will find the earliest date in a wide
range of dates. I have tried using =MIN(A1:A455) but it returns 0-Jan-00.
There are no spaces in the range.

 

[Dave Peterson]

I bet you have a 0 in that range.

It could be hidden by formatting (or conditional formatting), but it's there.

If you select A1:A455 and edit|find
search for 0
(Match entire cell contents)
you may find it
(or search for 0-jan-00 if it may be formatted as a date)

If it turns out you have to leave the 0's in your data, you can use a different
formula to ignore them:

=MIN(IF(a1:a455>0,a1:a455))

This is an array formula. Hit ctrl-shift-enter instead of enter. If you do it
correctly, excel will wrap curly brackets {} around your formula. (don't type
them yourself.)

Adjust the range to match--but you can't use the whole column.

====
But I'd do my best to clean the data.

 

[Dave Peterson]

Ps. That 0 could be on a hidden row, too???

I bet you have a 0 in that range.

It could be hidden by formatting (or conditional formatting), but it's there.

If you select A1:A455 and edit|find
search for 0
(Match entire cell contents)
you may find it
(or search for 0-jan-00 if it may be formatted as a date)

If it turns out you have to leave the 0's in your data, you can use a different
formula to ignore them:

=MIN(IF(a1:a455>0,a1:a455))

This is an array formula. Hit ctrl-shift-enter instead of enter. If you do it
correctly, excel will wrap curly brackets {} around your formula. (don't type
them yourself.)

Adjust the range to match--but you can't use the whole column.

====
But I'd do my best to clean the data.