I have what is, essentially, a real estate problem. I am trying to use a
function to find the previous owner for a given property. The formula that I
am using is below, but it returns the first owner for that property, not the
owner previous to the selected owner.
Owners are assigned unique numbers. I have found the first date that a
given owner owned a property, and I want to find who owned that property
before them. For the formula below, the following information is required
for it to make sense:

Sheet 1
Column R contains the name of the property-a unique letter and number code
assigned to each property.
Column S contains the date that the new owner moved in.

MIDDATE
Column G contains the owners' names-a unique number assigned to each
individual.
Column I contains the property names
Column J contains the dates (census dates and selling dates) that it was
owned by each owner.

Example: in Sheet1 the formula in V12 is
{=INDEX(MIDDATE!$G$2:$G$21624,MATCH(1,(MIDDATE!$I$ 2:$I$21624=R12)*(MIDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624<S12),0))}

I'm sure there's a simple solution, but I can't figure it out. I tried just
sorting the MIDDATE sheet by date descending instead of ascending, but it
didn't work. I'm not very experienced with Excel in general, and certainly
not with array functions. I hope I've included all the necessary information
here. Please ask if I can make it any easier for someone to help me, I've
been trying to do this for two days.
Thanks in advance

Try

=INDEX(MIDDATE!$G$2:$G$21624,MATCH(1,(MAX((MIDDATE !$I$2:$I$21624=R12)*(MIDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624<S12))=M IDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624)*(MIDDATE!$I$2:$I$21624=R12), 0))

"Julie Olsen" wrote:

I have what is, essentially, a real estate problem. I am trying to use a
function to find the previous owner for a given property. The formula that I
am using is below, but it returns the first owner for that property, not the
owner previous to the selected owner.
Owners are assigned unique numbers. I have found the first date that a
given owner owned a property, and I want to find who owned that property
before them. For the formula below, the following information is required
for it to make sense:

Sheet 1
Column R contains the name of the property-a unique letter and number code
assigned to each property.
Column S contains the date that the new owner moved in.

MIDDATE
Column G contains the owners' names-a unique number assigned to each
individual.
Column I contains the property names
Column J contains the dates (census dates and selling dates) that it was
owned by each owner.

Example: in Sheet1 the formula in V12 is
{=INDEX(MIDDATE!$G$2:$G$21624,MATCH(1,(MIDDATE!$I$ 2:$I$21624=R12)*(MIDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624<S12),0))}

I'm sure there's a simple solution, but I can't figure it out. I tried just
sorting the MIDDATE sheet by date descending instead of ascending, but it
didn't work. I'm not very experienced with Excel in general, and certainly
not with array functions. I hope I've included all the necessary information
here. Please ask if I can make it any easier for someone to help me, I've
been trying to do this for two days.
Thanks in advance

My apologies, that should be.....

=INDEX(MIDDATE!$G$2:$G$21624,MATCH(1,(MAX((MIDDATE !$I$2:$I$21624=R12)*(MIDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624<S12)*MI DDATE!$J$2:$J$21624)=MIDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624)*(MIDDA TE!$I$2:$I$21624=R12),0))

"daddylonglegs" wrote:

Try

=INDEX(MIDDATE!$G$2:$G$21624,MATCH(1,(MAX((MIDDATE !$I$2:$I$21624=R12)*(MIDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624<S12))=M IDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624)*(MIDDATE!$I$2:$I$21624=R12), 0))

"Julie Olsen" wrote:

I have what is, essentially, a real estate problem. I am trying to use a
function to find the previous owner for a given property. The formula that I
am using is below, but it returns the first owner for that property, not the
owner previous to the selected owner.
Owners are assigned unique numbers. I have found the first date that a
given owner owned a property, and I want to find who owned that property
before them. For the formula below, the following information is required
for it to make sense:

Sheet 1
Column R contains the name of the property-a unique letter and number code
assigned to each property.
Column S contains the date that the new owner moved in.

MIDDATE
Column G contains the owners' names-a unique number assigned to each
individual.
Column I contains the property names
Column J contains the dates (census dates and selling dates) that it was
owned by each owner.

Example: in Sheet1 the formula in V12 is
{=INDEX(MIDDATE!$G$2:$G$21624,MATCH(1,(MIDDATE!$I$ 2:$I$21624=R12)*(MIDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624<S12),0))}

I'm sure there's a simple solution, but I can't figure it out. I tried just
sorting the MIDDATE sheet by date descending instead of ascending, but it
didn't work. I'm not very experienced with Excel in general, and certainly
not with array functions. I hope I've included all the necessary information
here. Please ask if I can make it any easier for someone to help me, I've
been trying to do this for two days.
Thanks in advance

Thank you very much, it worked beautifully. It took me a while to figure out
why, but I get it now. You just made my data analysis much more possible.

"daddylonglegs" wrote:

My apologies, that should be.....

=INDEX(MIDDATE!$G$2:$G$21624,MATCH(1,(MAX((MIDDATE !$I$2:$I$21624=R12)*(MIDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624<S12)*MI DDATE!$J$2:$J$21624)=MIDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624)*(MIDDA TE!$I$2:$I$21624=R12),0))

"daddylonglegs" wrote:

Try

=INDEX(MIDDATE!$G$2:$G$21624,MATCH(1,(MAX((MIDDATE !$I$2:$I$21624=R12)*(MIDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624<S12))=M IDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624)*(MIDDATE!$I$2:$I$21624=R12), 0))

"Julie Olsen" wrote:

I have what is, essentially, a real estate problem. I am trying to use a
function to find the previous owner for a given property. The formula that I
am using is below, but it returns the first owner for that property, not the
owner previous to the selected owner.
Owners are assigned unique numbers. I have found the first date that a
given owner owned a property, and I want to find who owned that property
before them. For the formula below, the following information is required
for it to make sense:

Sheet 1
Column R contains the name of the property-a unique letter and number code
assigned to each property.
Column S contains the date that the new owner moved in.

MIDDATE
Column G contains the owners' names-a unique number assigned to each
individual.
Column I contains the property names
Column J contains the dates (census dates and selling dates) that it was
owned by each owner.

Example: in Sheet1 the formula in V12 is
{=INDEX(MIDDATE!$G$2:$G$21624,MATCH(1,(MIDDATE!$I$ 2:$I$21624=R12)*(MIDDATE!$J$2:$J$21624<S12),0))}

I'm sure there's a simple solution, but I can't figure it out. I tried just
sorting the MIDDATE sheet by date descending instead of ascending, but it
didn't work. I'm not very experienced with Excel in general, and certainly
not with array functions. I hope I've included all the necessary information
here. Please ask if I can make it any easier for someone to help me, I've
been trying to do this for two days.
Thanks in advance