Hi Nitya,

Am Mon, 11 Apr 2016 21:57:41 -0700 (PDT) schrieb Nitya Satheesh:

col1 col2
1/1/2014 species 1
2/1/2014 species 1
2/1/2014 species 2
3/1/2014 species 2
4/1/2014 species 1
8/1/2014 species 1
8/1/2014 species 3
15/1/2014 species 3
15/1/2014 species 4
21/1/2014 species 5
11/2/2014 species 1
26/2/2014 species 5

I hope I understood your problem.
The first date for species 1:
=MINIFS(A:A,B:B,"species 1")
The last date similiar:
=MAXIFS(A:A,B:B,"species 1")

If that is not the solution, please post the expected output here.


Regards
Claus B.
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Vista Ultimate / Windows7
Office 2007 Ultimate / 2010 Professional