I am trying to check a column of dates against a reference date to determine
if the dates occurred before the reference date. I am using the following
logical expression:

IF(A1<"01-Jan-2004", "True","False")

column A contains dates like:

01-Feb-2004

The expression provides the correct answer for some dates and the incorrect
answer for others. Anyone know the correct syntax for this expression?

use this instead
=IF(A1<DATEVALUE("01-Jan-2004"), "True","False")

"Hugh@cat" wrote in message
...
I am trying to check a column of dates against a reference date to
determine
if the dates occurred before the reference date. I am using the following
logical expression:

IF(A1<"01-Jan-2004", "True","False")

column A contains dates like:

01-Feb-2004

The expression provides the correct answer for some dates and the
incorrect
answer for others. Anyone know the correct syntax for this expression?

that looks like it should work. it may help if you convert your date format
to a fully numeric one eg 01/02/04 as the formula you have used may not be
able to parse alphanumeric data


"Hugh@cat" wrote:

I am trying to check a column of dates against a reference date to determine
if the dates occurred before the reference date. I am using the following
logical expression:

IF(A1<"01-Jan-2004", "True","False")

column A contains dates like:

01-Feb-2004

The expression provides the correct answer for some dates and the incorrect
answer for others. Anyone know the correct syntax for this expression?