The double unary is a useful tool to convert non-numeric data to numeric,
where it can of course. So a date form like "2006-07-11" can be transformed
to an Excel date (which is just a number) by preceding with the double
unary. Similarly, True can be transformed to 1, and False to 0, which is the
basis of many SUMPRODUCT formulae seen around. See
http://www.xldynamic.com/source/xld.SUMPRODUCT.html for a detailed
explanation.

--
HTH

Bob Phillips

(replace somewhere in email address with gmail if mailing direct)

"SteveW" wrote in message
news:op.tci5ioleevjsnp@enigma03...
Cheers, thanks for that.

Now I see it works, but I can't find any reference to it in my 2003 Help
file

Has it been one of those hidden features ?

Steve


On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 15:51:02 +0100, Ardus Petus
wrote:

The -- is used to turn string litteral into numeric value.
=SUMPRODUCT((B2:B97<--"30/05/1976")*(B2:B97=--"30/05/1966"))

Cheers,
--
AP

"SteveW" a écrit dans le message de news:
op.tci39vlwevjsnp@enigma03...
Since when, and why does excel accept "<--" as "<=" ?

Steve

On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 15:23:40 +0100, Ardus Petus

wrote:

Try:
=SUMPRODUCT((B2:B97<--"30/05/1976")*(B2:B97--"30/05/1966"))

Cheers,
--
AP

"ExcelDummie" a écrit dans le
message de news: ...
Trying to do a calculation to count the number of people who are aged
between
30 and 40 have their dates of birth in a table trying to get the
formula
to
work because it has to be greater than one date AND smaller than
another????

=COUNTIF(B2:B97,"<30/05/1976",=30/05/1966")





--
Steve (3)





--
Steve (3)