Thanks Teethless Mama - that worked too! Multiple ways to skin a cat!

Appreciate the help.


Teethless mama wrote:
Assuming your data in row 1

=INDEX(1:1,MATCH(TRUE,1:1<0,0))

ctrl+shift+enter, not just enter


" wrote:

This challenge has been ruining my morning:
What I am trying to do seems pretty simple, but I can't seem to find a
simple, elegant (or even complex, inelegant) solution. I am pulling
numbers from a database. Each row contains 10 years worth of data
(with the most recent number reported last). Unfortunately, I do not
have the same amount of data on each item, so many rows contain "0"
values in cells (time periods before reporting began). I am trying to
find the CAGR for the entire reported time period, starting with the
first data for each item. I am using a COUNTIF to determine number of
periods, but I am struggling mightily to come up with a formula
reporting the first value after the string of zeroes.
Any thoughts?
typical strings:

0 0 450 489 520 510 550 560

0 0 0 0 0 125 110 115

All I want is a formula that will return 450 for the first string of
numbers and 125 for the second.
Thanks much,
Mike