Assuming that A1:B3 contains your table, try...

=LOOKUP(D1,LEFT(A1:A3,10)+0,B1:B3)

....where D1 contains the date of interest. However, it would be more
efficient if you changed your table so that A1:A3 contains...

1/1/06
1/6/06
1/11/06

....and B1:B3 contains the corresponding values...

1/5/06
1/10/06
1/15/06

Then you can use the following formula instead...

=LOOKUP(D1,A1:A3,B1:B3)

Hope this helps!

In article ,
Nokose451
wrote:

Hello all. I hope someone can help me figure this one out. So here we
go....

I have a spread sheet that you plug in a date and then enter another
date manually. The second date is the on I would like to automate. I
need the first date to be complared in a range of dates and then return
the effective date.

Example:
Entered date - 01/08/2006

Range Table: Effective:
01/01/2006 - 01/05/2006 01/05/2006
01/06/2006 - 01/10/2006 01/10/2006
01/11/2006 - 01/15/2006 01/15/2006

I would like it to return the 01/10/2006 effective date for that range.
Any help is appreciated.