I'm trying to do a lookup, but on data that occur in _descending_
order, and for some reason I can't get it to work.

This is a spreadsheet of loan payments, interest, etc. Payment dates
are in B18:B377, and new balances are in I18:I377. I'm trying to
fond the date where new balance first goes to zero. I can't use
VLOOKUP or LOOKUP because the balances are in descending order, so I
tried MATCH:

=MATCH(0,I$18:I$377,0)

and then I'll use INDEX(B18:B377, the MATCH) to get the date. But
=MATCH() returns #N/A and not the row number as expected. Is the
problem that my column I contains formulas rather than values? Excel
help isn't explicit about this, though all its examples are values.

How can I find the first cell in I18:I377 that contains a zero? (I'm
using Excel 2010, but if possible I'd like a formula that also works
in Excel 2007.)

Thanks!

(P.S. This is in aid of my spreadsheet mentioned in "Here is Mortgage
Calculator with Amortization" -- I'm trying to generalize it, and
also display up top the date on which the loan will be paid off.)


--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...