First In/First Out -- comparing creation dt to start dt

[minkus]

Hello;

I'm having a hard time coming up with a way of isolating work orders that were started out of order from when they were created -- I have an order number, a creation date, and a start date -- and ideally the work orders would be started in the order of the creation date. If possible I'd like to find those that weren't...

I've included one attachment as an example -- thanks for your help!

[6StringJazzer]

The hard part is defining what "out of order" means. If I have two orders, but the one that came second was started first, which one is out of order? The first, the second, or both?

In your data, for example, order A3 is the third order, but was started first. That means it was started too early, and the first two orders were started late. And in fact every other order was started out of turn.

The Excel part is sometimes the easiest part

[minkus]

You're right -- I had the orders sorted by creation dt; but when I sort by start dt I get that A3 was worked first, then A4, then A6 and so on... going that route it shows every one but A7 was worked out of order.

Maybe another way of looking at it would be taking a difference between the dates, then sorting to see which orders have the greatest delta value.

In the interim, do you know of a way to compare the two lists and flag where they either agree or dissagree? Sorting by create dt I get A1, A2, A3... then sorting by start dt I get A3, A4, A6 -- the first order number to agree is A7 -- is there a way to somehow flag that?

Thanks for your help! Appreciate it --

[Charlie_Howell]

is this close to what you are looking for?