If the cell contains a date, it will contain some number like 37756 or
something. If your formula with hand written date is

=SUMIF(G3:G5,""&"10/1/2002",H3:H5)

try putting 10/1/2002 (ensure Excel knows it's a date. you can format it as
a number to be sure) in H1, then you can use

=SUMIF(G3:G5,""&H1,H3:H5)


"bkclark" wrote in message
...
How do I create a formula in Excel that will countif or sum if before or
after a specific date? Whenever I put the actual date in the formula it
works, but when I reference to the cell the date is in it returns 0.