IF Question

[candle_66]

I have a problem with a simple IF statement.

I have tapes with a return date of 2012. I want to autofill another cell with IM if there is a date of 2012 in the return date cell

My formula is in H8 and is =IF(D8=3-Dec-12,IM,IS)

D8 has the date of 3-Dec-12

The formula is in H8 and should retun IM but I get #NAME?

I am sure this is a simple problem

Thanks in advance

 

[seenfresh]

Try

=IF(D8=3-Dec-12,"IM","IS")

 

[Norie]

Try this.

=IF(D8="3-Dec-12"+0,"IM","IS")

 

[candle_66]

Thank you Norrie

I had tried the first suggestion before I posted. It did not work.

But by adding +0 it did.

Thank you.

Why would I need +0 out of interest

Thanks again

Howard

 

[Norie]

Howard

The +0 coerces the string to a number, in this case a date.

Excel stores dates as long integers.

 

[seenfresh]

Norie: quick question!

If by example cell D8 was formated to show Date under format cells in any specified appearance:

Why would this formula not work? =IF(D8=Date(2003,12,12),"IM","IS")
Date(2003,12,12) would be interpreted as December 12, 2003, thus the same date as 3-12-12 following date formating, but would their be a problem due to assigned serial numbers for the date function and cell D8 would not be interpreted this way?

Thanks in advance

 

[Norie]

sean

Do you definitely have a true date value in D8?

 

[seenfresh]

Well it would'nt be because excel does not generate date formats like:

3-12-12

correct!

what if in D8 showed: 12/12/2003 would this be interpreted as serial number for date format and thus = Date(2003,12,12)

Thanks again!