One way

=MIN(IF(B3:B300="a",A3:A300))

dates in A3:A300 (need to be real excel dates thus numeric), participants in
B3:B300 and the above formula will find the earliest date for participant "a"

needs to be entered with ctrl + shift & enter


Regards,


Peo Sjoblom


"billybob1" wrote:

I am trying to find the earliest transaction date for a program participant
with multiple records relating to each participant. For example in a list of
transactions participants are identified by their SSN, there are many
transactions by each participant with the date of each transaction recorded.
I want to find the earliest transaction date by each participant without
sorting the database.