Locating 1st transaction date in a table

[ajm1964]

i have i table with thousands of entries and i am trying to locate the first dates for each specific person that made the transaction

the table is formatted like this

Name Description Transaction date
... ....... .........
...... ....... .............

how can i locate the first date for each person?

 

[Matty]

Welcome to the Board!

Try:

=MIN(IF(NameRange=A2,TransactionDateRange))

Where A2 is a Cell containing the name of interest.

This is an array formula and therefore needs committing with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER.

Matty

 

[ajm1964]

Does this mean i can only search 1 persons name at a time or can i use this formula for the entire name field and have it return everyone's first transaction date?

 

[Matty]

Does this mean i can only search 1 persons name at a time or can i use this formula for the entire name field and have it return everyone's first transaction date?

You could create a list of all the unique names in your data set and run this formula down an adjacent formula. It would then show the first transaction date for each individual person.

Example:

<table style="font-family:Arial,Arial; font-size:10pt; background-color:#ffffff; padding-left:2pt; padding-right:2pt; " border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr style="background-color:#cacaca; text-align:center; font-weight:bold; font-size:8pt; "><td>
</td><td>A</td><td>B</td><td>C</td><td>D</td><td>E</td><td>F</td></tr><tr style="height:17px ;"><td style="font-size:8pt; background-color:#cacaca; text-align:center; ">1</td><td>Name</td><td>Description</td><td>Transaction Date</td><td>
</td><td>Name</td><td>Earliest Transaction Date</td></tr><tr style="height:17px ;"><td style="font-size:8pt; background-color:#cacaca; text-align:center; ">2</td><td>Matty</td><td>Something</td><td style="text-align:right; ">01/01/2011</td><td>
</td><td>Matty</td><td style="text-align:right; ">01/01/2000</td></tr><tr style="height:17px ;"><td style="font-size:8pt; background-color:#cacaca; text-align:center; ">3</td><td>ajm1964</td><td>Something</td><td style="text-align:right; ">01/01/1964</td><td>
</td><td>ajm1964</td><td style="text-align:right; ">01/01/1964</td></tr><tr style="height:17px ;"><td style="font-size:8pt; background-color:#cacaca; text-align:center; ">4</td><td>Matty</td><td>Something</td><td style="text-align:right; ">22/07/2011</td><td>
</td><td>
</td><td>
</td></tr><tr style="height:17px ;"><td style="font-size:8pt; background-color:#cacaca; text-align:center; ">5</td><td>ajm1964</td><td>Something</td><td style="text-align:right; ">31/12/1964</td><td>
</td><td>
</td><td>
</td></tr><tr style="height:17px ;"><td style="font-size:8pt; background-color:#cacaca; text-align:center; ">6</td><td>Matty</td><td>Something</td><td style="text-align:right; ">01/01/2000</td><td>
</td><td>
</td><td>
</td></tr><tr style="height:17px ;"><td style="font-size:8pt; background-color:#cacaca; text-align:center; ">7</td><td>ajm1964</td><td>Something</td><td style="text-align:right; ">01/07/1964</td><td>
</td><td>
</td><td>
</td></tr></tbody></table>
Formula in F2 copied down is:

=MIN(IF(A$2:A$7=E2,C$2:C$7))

Array entered, as described before.

Matty