XL: Using Application.Match to Locate Date Values on a Worksheet

ID: Q141507

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

In Microsoft Excel, you may run into problems if you use the Match method in a Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macro or procedure to locate date values on a worksheet. When you use a macro to search for dates, you need to search for the actual serial value of the date.

MORE INFORMATION

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In Microsoft Excel, each date is represented by a serialized number. If you are using the 1900 date system in Microsoft Excel 5.0 and 7.0, the serial numbers range from 1 to 65,380, corresponding to the dates January 1, 1900, through December 31, 2078. In Microsoft Excel 97 and Microsoft Excel 98, the range has been increased from 1 to 2958465, corresponding to the dates January 1, 1900, through December 31, 9999. If you are using the 1904 date system in versions 5.0 and 7.0, the serial numbers range from 0 to 63,918, corresponding to the dates January 1, 1904, through December 31, 2078. In Microsoft Excel 97 and Microsoft Excel 98, the range is from 1 to 2957003, corresponding to January 1, 1904, through December 31, 9999.

To use a macro to match a date, use the serial value for the date as the lookup value when you use the Match function. You can acquire the serial value for a date by using the CLng function to convert the date to a long integer.

Sample Visual Basic Procedure

   Sub MatchDate()

       Dim TheDate As Date
       Dim Index As Variant

       TheDate = #1/3/95#

       ' Find a match for the serial value of the date in the range A1:A10
       ' on Sheet1.
       Index = Application.Match(CLng(TheDate), Range("Sheet1!A1:A10"), 0)

       ' Display the results.
       If IsError(Index) Then
           MsgBox "Not Found"
       Else
           MsgBox "Match item: " & Index
       End If

   End Sub
Additional query words: XL98 XL97 XL7 XL5 8.00 7.00 5.00 5.00a 5.00c index match 
Keywords          : kbprg kbdta kbdtacode PgmHowto KbVBA 
Version           : WINDOWS:5.0,5.0c,7.0,97; MACINTOSH:5.0,5.0a,98
Platform          : MACINTOSH WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: May 17, 1999