How do I use max date in Excel?

When working with dates in Excel, a useful task is to find the latest date among a set of values. A straightforward approach involves utilizing Excel's formulas to automate this process.

Begin by assuming your dates are listed in column A. This column may contain a mix of dates and blank cells.

To extract the latest date, you can use a specific formula that takes into account both valid dates and empty cells. The formula is designed to ignore empty cells and return the maximum date from the column.

Here's the formula to use: `=MAX(IF(ISBLANK(A:A), 0, A:A))`. This formula leverages the `MAX` function, which finds the largest value in a range, combined with `IF` and `ISBLANK` functions to filter out blank cells.

Importantly, since this is an array formula, it requires a special way of entering it. Instead of simply pressing Enter, you must use the combination of Ctrl + Shift + Enter. This will ensure Excel understands it's dealing with an array and processes the formula accordingly.