Excel is kind of picky when you refer to a date in a formula and there's
also the issue of date ambiguity.

Try one of these:

=COUNTIFS(H$3:H$398,""&DATE(2008,11,18),J$3:J$398 ,"0")

Use a cell to hold the date:

A1 = some date

=COUNTIFS(H$3:H$398,""&A1,J$3:J$398,"0")

As a last resort (I don't like this method!):

=COUNTIFS(H$3:H$398,""&--"2008/11/18",J$3:J$398,"0")


--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"kje.1953" wrote in message
...
I have tried a few methods but I am not getting the results I need. I am
trying to count how many products - any value (in column J) sold on a
particular date say 17/11/2008 (column H).

I used the following formula to count the number of times there is a value
in column L (for criteria of 12 mth) for anything with a date in column L
and got the results I expected, but when when i changed it to a date and
different range on same sheet I got no results.

=COUNTIFS($K$3:$K$398,"12 mth",$L$3:$L$398,"0") I got the number of
times
I expected for this.

When I changed it to this formula I got no results, Why??
=COUNTIFS(H$3:H$398,"18/11/08",J$3:J$398,"0")