How to find earliest and latest dates in a range in Excel?
In a column of dates, it's not easy to find out the earliest date and latest date quickly, if you can't sort the dates. Actually, there are several tricky ways to find out the earliest and latest dates in Excel easily and conveniently.
- Find earliest and latest dates with functions
- Find earliest and latest dates with Kutools for Excel
- Find earliest and latest dates in each row/column in Excel
- Find earliest or latest dates based on criteria in another column (by group)
Find earliest and latest dates with functions
Supposing you want to find out the earliest date and latest date in the range of A1:D7 see the following screenshot:
1. Min function to find earliest date
In a blank cell, enter the formula =MIN(A1:D7), and press the Enter key. It will return the earliest dates in active cell as soon as possible.
2. Small function to find earliest date
You can also apply the formula =SMALL(A1:D7,1) to get the earliest dates quickly.
3. Max function to find latest date
If you want to find out the latest dates in the range, you can enter the formula =MAX(A1:D7), and press the Enter key.
4. Large function to find latest date
This formula of =LARGE(A1:D7,1) will help you get the latest dates quickly.
Find earliest and latest dates with Kutools for Excel
If you have Kutools for Excel installed, its Select Cells with Max or Min Value tool can help you find out the earliest date and latest dates quickly without remembering the functions.
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1. Select the range that you will pick up the latest or earliest date form. In this case, select the range of A1:D7, and click Kutools > Select > Select Cells with Max or Min Values.
2. Specify the settings as the following screenshot shows:
(1) If you want to find out the latest date, please check the Maximum value option; or check the Minimum value option for the earliest date;
(2) Check the Cell option and First cell only option.
3. Click OK. Then the cell with the latest date or earliest date in the selection will be selected at once.
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Find the earliest or latest dates in each row/column in Excel
This Select Cells with Max or Min Value utility of Kutools for Excel also supports to select the maximum value or minimum value in each column or in each rows easily.:
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Select the range that you will pick up the latest or earliest date from, and click Kutools > Select > Select Cells with Max or Min Values, and then specify the options as below screenshot:
Check Entire Row option to find latest date in each row:
Check Entire column option to find latest date in each row:
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Demo: find earliest and latest dates in a range or each row/column of a range
Easily find the max/min value based on criteria in other column (by group) in Excel
Kutools for Excel's Advanced Combine Rows utility can help Excel users quickly find out the maximum value of minimum value of each item in another column with ease.

This Advanced Combine Rows utility can also combine rows and separate values by specified marks, or combine rows and calculate their sums, number of occurrences, maximum/minimum values, averages, etc.
Related Articles:
- Select max data with max function
- Select the highest value and lowest value
- Select minimum data with min function
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