Complex Formulas and If Formulas

Alright usually I am pretty good at Excel but this one has me stumped. In a row I have different dates, X's, and blanks. I have a new row that has the soonest date of all the columns including the "X". So I need the formula to give me the date that is happening the soonest. If the column has an "X" then it can be a date way off in the future so that it's not the soonest. If the column is a blank then I need it to be todays date, and if it's a date then what ever date it is. This is what I have that doesn't work and is huge. I know this is horribly complicated and could probably be done better but with that I am tracking it's what I have to use. Thank you in advance for the help.

=MIN(H5,M5,Q5,S5,IF(ISBLANK(F5),(TODAY())),IF(ISBLANK(I5),(TODAY())),IF(ISBLANK(J5),(TODAY())),IF(ISBLANK(O5),(TODAY()))*IF("X",(1/1/2099)),IF("X",(1/1/2099)),IF("X",(1/1/2099)),IF("X",(1/1/2099)))

Explained:

F5 is a "X" or Blank
H5 is a date
I5 is a "X" or Blank
J5 is a "X" or Blank
M5 is a date
O5 is a "X" or Blank
Q5 is a date
S5 is a date

could you attach a sample workbook?

but if i understand correctly, this should work for you:

=MIN(H5,M5,R5,S5,IF(F5="",TODAY(),"100000"),IF(I5="",TODAY(),"100000"),IF(J5="",TODAY(),"100000"),IF(Q5="",TODAY(),"100000"))

this should work for you:

=MIN(H5,M5,S5,IF(F5="",TODAY(),"100000"),IF(I5="",TODAY(),"100000"),IF(J5="",TODAY(),"100000"),IF(Q5="",TODAY(),"100000"))

Ahhh! You are the man! or Woman! Works perfectly, I think that I was just "filling" wrong. Thank you so much for your help.

i was not accounting for a date cell to be blank

try this:

=MIN(IF(H5="",TODAY(),H5),IF(M5="",TODAY(),M5),IF(S5="",TODAY(),S5),IF(F5="",TODAY(),"100000"),IF(I5="",TODAY(),"100000"),IF(J5="",TODAY(),"100000"),IF(Q5="",TODAY(),Q5))