On Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:37:01 -0800, Victoria
wrote:

hi Ron

Your solution works well! I've noticed that in my example, though, the
dates are always increasing when moving down the column. I guess that's why
the MAX function can be used the way you suggested. But there will be
instances where the dates could move back in time when moving down the
column. Any ideas how the formula could be modified to take this into
account?

Much thanks
Victoria

To pick up the last date when the dates in column A are unsorted, you could
use:

B2: =IF(A2="","",A2-LOOKUP(1E+307,$A$1:A1))

and fill down.

This could, of course, give a negative number as a result if the current date
is prior to the previously listed date.
--ron