But the concatenate formula does not create recognisable numbers.

You are correct. The CONCATENATE function return TEXT. Also, using the &
operator to concatenate returns TEXT.

Try it like this:

A1 = 1
B1 = 2004

=--(A1&B1)

Returns numeric 12004


--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"caroline" wrote in message
...
I have Months in Column A (from 1 for Jan to 12 for Dec) and Years in
Column B.
I need to find the month corresponding to the earlier date.
For instance if my lowest year is 2004 found in B12 and B24, and A12=2 and
A24=8, the result should be 2
The problem is that I can have several occurrences of the same year, so I
have tried to create a unique key using concatenate(Month,year) in Column
C
and then using Index and Match.
INDEX(A:A,MATCH(MIN(C:C),C:C,0))
But the concatenate formula does not create recognisable numbers.
any idea?
Thanks

--
caroline