Hi Ron

Very nice solution.
Just need to remember that the whole world doesn't use US date
formats!<vbg.
It gives some strange results in the UK unless you modify to
=IF(A1,LOOKUP(365,((TEXT(A1,"dd/mm/")&YEAR(TODAY())+{0,1})-TODAY())),"")And if you are after reducing formula length, then in addition to Biff'sNOW() in place of TODAY() you can trim another 2 characters by using"m/d/" or "d/m/" in place of the double dd and double mm--RegardsRoger Govier"Ron Coderre" wrote in ... ..or....assuming text and future values wouldn't be entered as a startdate=IF(A1,LOOKUP(365,((TEXT(A1,"mm/dd/")&YEAR(TODAY())+{0,1})-TODAY())),"") *********** Regards, Ron XL2002, WinXP "Ron Coderre" wrote: ...or even a few more...=IF(A1<"",LOOKUP(365,((TEXT(A1,"mm/dd/")&YEAR(TODAY())+{0,1})-TODAY())),"") (I thought it would get tripped up by a start date of02/29/2000...but, so far so good.) *********** Regards, Ron XL2002, WinXP "T. Valko" wrote: Let's trim some more characters: No longer need the call to ABS: =DATE(YEAR(NOW())+(DATEVALUE(MONTH(A1)&"/"&DAY(A1))<TODAY()),MONTH(A1),DAY(A1))-TODAY() -- Biff Microsoft Excel MVP "T. Valko" wrote in message ... Character count? Where's your error checking? <g I was trying to come up with a shortcut for: +(DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),MONTH(A1),DAY(A1))<TODAY() But this didn't work (I didn't test it enough): +(MONTH(TODAY())MONTH(A2)) This seems to work and I still retain the character count title<g: =ABS(DATE(YEAR(NOW())+(DATEVALUE(MONTH(A1)&"/"&DAY(A1))<TODAY()),MONTH(A1),DAY(A1))-TODAY()) But I still like having some error checking: =IF(OR(A1="",A1TODAY()),"",ABS(DATE(YEAR(NOW())+ (DATEVALUE(MONTH(A1)&"/"&DAY(A1))<TODAY()),MONTH(A1),DAY(A1))-TODAY())) -- Biff Microsoft Excel MVP "Rick Rothstein (MVP - VB)" wrote in message ... I want to show the number of days between the current date(today) and the hiring date in order to provide an indication of howmany days is the anniversary away. Any suggestions? Here is my offering (assumes "hire date" is in A1)... =DATEDIF(TODAY(),DATE(YEAR(TODAY())+(DATE(YEAR(T ODAY()),MONTH(A1),DAY(A1))<TODAY()),MONTH(A1),DAY( A1)),"d") While character count is not an absolute metric, I note thatthis formula is the shortest one offered so far except for Biff's,mine is one character longer than Biff's formula; but, as Sandy pointed out,Biff will have to modify his formula to account for the problem Sandyhas pointed out, so we will see how things shake out on thecharacter count later. Rick