» Avoiding False Results when Counting Dates Matching Specified Criteria

CATEGORY - Excel Date & Time Formulas VERSION - All Microsoft Excel Versions

Problem:

Column A contains dates formatted as "mm/dd/yyyy".
When using the following COUNTIF formula to count the number of dates after April 1st, 2005:
=COUNTIF(A2:A6,">"&--"04/01/05")
A false result of 4 was returned.

Solution 1:

To avoid any format related problems, use the COUNTIF and DATE functions as shown in the following formula:
=COUNTIF(A2:A6,">"&DATE(2005,4,1))

Solution 2:

Use the COUNTIF function as shown in the following formula:
=COUNTIF(A2:A6,">"&--"2005-04-01")