Last week at work, I was trying to count how many entries in a spreadsheet would come due by the end of this year, I.e., 12/31/2024. Like I often do, I went to Google Search and asked, “Excel countif the date is less than a certain date,” which gave me pages of responses.
The top response was from spreadsheet web.com, which listed the following formula:
=COUNTIF($A$1:$C$10, “<12/31/2024”)
While I found a similar formula on many other pages, my version of Excel (version 2312 - build 17126-20190) would not run it and kept giving me an error. I messed around with this for probably a half hour before I thought, Why don’t I try Perplexity AI (using ChatGPT4)?
I went to Perplexity AI, and here is the output:
To count dates in the range A1 to A10 that are less than a specific date, you can use the `COUNTIF` function in Excel. The formula structure is as follows:
=COUNTIF(A1:A10,"<"&"specific_date")
Replace `"specific_date"` with the actual date you're comparing against. For example, if you're counting dates before April 1, 2024, the formula would be:
=COUNTIF(A1:A10,"<"&DATE(2024,4,1))
This formula uses the `DATE` function to ensure Excel correctly interprets the date[3].
Sources
[1] Excel COUNTIF function examples - not blank, greater than ... https://www.ablebits.com/office-addins-blog/excel-countif-function-examples/
[2] How to use Excel COUNTIFS and COUNTIF with multiple criteria https://www.ablebits.com/office-addins-blog/excel-countifs-multiple-criteria/
[3] Excel COUNTIF function | Exceljet https://exceljet.net/functions/countif-function
[4] Excel How to Count Cells between dates https://www.excel-university.com/excel-how-to-count-cells-between-dates/
[5] How to Use COUNTIF in Excel - All Things How https://allthings.how/how-to-use-countif-in-excel/
[6] Excel Countif Function: Simple Guide For Beginners https://www.simplesheets.co/blog/excel-countif-function-simple-guide-for-beginners
[7] What is COUNT in Excel and How to Use COUNT Function? https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/excel-tutorial/count-in-excel
[8] Excel COUNTIF and COUNTIFS Formulas Explained https://www.myonlinetraininghub.com/excel-countif-and-countifs-formulas-explained
By Perplexity at https://www.perplexity.ai/search/What-is-the-g3a0RBeDQr.y36LqmmPB9g
This formula worked the first time! While the formula is virtually identical to the one Google suggested the ampersand and using quotes around the less than symbol and the date. The formatting was the key.
I should have saved myself a lot of time and gone to Perplexity AI first, which I will do in the future.
