On Sat, 2 Jun 2012 17:19:10 +0000, Guym wrote:


I would like excel to return the value of the first day of each year in
a column.

Assume the table below:
----A ------------------B
1 Date----------------Value
2 june 5 2000-----------82
2 august 8 2000--------120
3 december 11 2000----456
4 march 4 2002----------75
5 september 29 2002----965

The formula should return the values 82 for the year 2000 and 75 for the
year 2002. The formula will be helpful as I have a list of thousands
data over 20 years.

Thank you

You could use a Pivot Table.

Select your table (or, if it is contiguous, and separated from the rest of the worksheet by blank cells, just a single cell within the table):
Insert/Pivot Table
Drag Date to Row Labels; Drag Value to Values

Edit the Values to show Min of Value instead of Sum
Right click on the Row Labels; select to Group By years.
Format to taste

--

Years Values
2000 82
2002 75