What is the syntax to check if a date occurred before a referance.

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" <Hugh@[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>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?