Need to find first occurence of data in a range of cells

[kspchp]

I have a range of cells from Jan-Dec that show when an item is awarded. I need a formula that returns the month the initial award appears so I can then compare this to the month the first sales appear.

The attached file shows examples.

ThanksFirstOccurenceExample.xls

[Ace_XL]

Use this array formula

=INDEX($B$1:$M$1,MATCH(TRUE,B2:M2<>0,0))


...confirmed by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to activate the array, not just ENTER. You will know the array is active when you see curly braces { } appear around your formula. If you do not CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER you will get an error or a clearly incorrect answer. Press F2 on that cell and try again.

or this non-array one..

=INDEX($B$1:$M$1,MATCH(1,INDEX((B2:M2<>0)+0,0),0))

[kspchp]

thank you so much. The non-array worked exactly as I hoped