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shade206's avatar
shade206
Brass Contributor
Dec 20, 2019
Solved

INDEX & MATCH interrupted by Inconsistent Dates

Hello So I have TWO Issues. Issue #1: My formula in columns F(Outbound), G(Inbound), and H(Total) is only working properly for "Jennifer" AND only up until there is a interruption of chronological...
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  • Haytham Amairah's avatar
    Haytham Amairah
    Dec 20, 2019

    shade206

     

    Hi,

     

    The formula you use isn't correct, and some dates in column N are treated as text not as numeric dates.

    Please check out the fix in the attached file.

     

    Regards

Alan_Murray's avatar
Alan_Murray
MVP
Dec 20, 2019

shade206I have written an article here which describes different techniques - http://bit.ly/2Hvig1h

 

For your data, I selected the problematic dates (MM-DD-YYYY ones). Clicked Data > Text to Columns. Bypassed the first two steps as insignificant. On Step 3 I changed the Date option to M-D-Y.

shade206's avatar
shade206
Brass Contributor
Dec 20, 2019

Thank you sir, that does most definitely work in the sample, but sadly those same steps will not correct the issue in my actual worksheet.... its odd because i deliberately copied the dates from my actual worksheet into the sample... Alan_Murray 

  • Alan_Murray's avatar
    Alan_Murray
    MVP
    Dec 20, 2019
    Ok, we would need to know what is causing the text formatting to lead us to a solution. The problem in the sample was the mixture of D-M-Y and M-D-Y formats.

    If that is not true on the actual worksheet, then something else is causing it and made need a different response.
      • Alan_Murray's avatar
        Alan_Murray
        MVP
        Dec 21, 2019

        shade206Yes, you have some inconsistent dates. Some UK format and others in US. I am using a UK system format. So mine recognises the D-M-Y an stores anything else as text.

         

        In the attached file, I used a formula in the last column to check if the date was seen as numeric or text. Then I filtered the list t only show the non-numerics.

         

        Then I selected those, used Go To Special to be sure that visible cells only was selected. And did the Text to Columns approach mention on previous replies.

         

        You have some dates that do not appear in the source producing #N/A errors. You can use the IFNA or IFERROR formula to replace these with something more useful.

         

        I hope this helps.

         

        Alan

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