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Excel - Identifying most common series of date values
Hi,
I have an Excel workbook (attached) that has 5 groups and each group has a series of date ranges. The number of groups and number of date ranges are not fixed so another example could have say 15 groups and each group has 7 date ranges.
01/01/2013 31/12/2013
01/01/2014 31/12/2014
01/01/2015 31/12/2015
01/01/2016 31/12/2016
01/01/2017 31/12/2017
01/01/2005 31/12/2005
01/01/2006 30/09/2006
01/10/2006 31/12/2006
01/01/2007 31/12/2007
01/01/2008 31/12/2008
01/01/2005 19/04/2005
20/04/2005 31/12/2005
01/01/2006 31/12/2006
01/01/2007 19/04/2007
20/04/2007 19/04/2008
01/01/2005 31/12/2005
01/01/2006 31/12/2006
01/01/2007 31/12/2007
01/01/2008 31/12/2008
01/01/2009 31/12/2009
01/01/2005 31/12/2005
01/01/2006 31/12/2006
01/01/2007 31/12/2007
01/01/2008 31/12/2008
01/01/2009 31/12/2009
I need to determine the groups that have exactly the same series of date ranges. In the attached workbook VBA was used to insert a formula in column C for the first date range in each group that concatenated the date start and end dates for each date range in that group. The result is a long string of values.
The VBA then inserted a COUNTIF formula in column D to return the number of instances that the long string in column C occurred. In the attached example the last 2 groups have exactly the same start and end dates. Consequently, the values returned by the COUNTIF formulae should be: 1, 1, 1, 2, 2
However, the values are: 1, 3, 1, 3, 3
I suspect the unexpected COUNTIF results arise from the very long strings involved. I would really appreciate help with how I can get the results I am expecting in column D.
Many thanks in advance
Alison
Example.xls
I have an Excel workbook (attached) that has 5 groups and each group has a series of date ranges. The number of groups and number of date ranges are not fixed so another example could have say 15 groups and each group has 7 date ranges.
01/01/2013 31/12/2013
01/01/2014 31/12/2014
01/01/2015 31/12/2015
01/01/2016 31/12/2016
01/01/2017 31/12/2017
01/01/2005 31/12/2005
01/01/2006 30/09/2006
01/10/2006 31/12/2006
01/01/2007 31/12/2007
01/01/2008 31/12/2008
01/01/2005 19/04/2005
20/04/2005 31/12/2005
01/01/2006 31/12/2006
01/01/2007 19/04/2007
20/04/2007 19/04/2008
01/01/2005 31/12/2005
01/01/2006 31/12/2006
01/01/2007 31/12/2007
01/01/2008 31/12/2008
01/01/2009 31/12/2009
01/01/2005 31/12/2005
01/01/2006 31/12/2006
01/01/2007 31/12/2007
01/01/2008 31/12/2008
01/01/2009 31/12/2009
I need to determine the groups that have exactly the same series of date ranges. In the attached workbook VBA was used to insert a formula in column C for the first date range in each group that concatenated the date start and end dates for each date range in that group. The result is a long string of values.
The VBA then inserted a COUNTIF formula in column D to return the number of instances that the long string in column C occurred. In the attached example the last 2 groups have exactly the same start and end dates. Consequently, the values returned by the COUNTIF formulae should be: 1, 1, 1, 2, 2
However, the values are: 1, 3, 1, 3, 3
I suspect the unexpected COUNTIF results arise from the very long strings involved. I would really appreciate help with how I can get the results I am expecting in column D.
Many thanks in advance
Alison
Example.xls
Microsoft Excel
Last Comment
Angelp1ay
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@byundt - Whoops. I normally put quite a lot of content into the comment but must have been falling asleep. Thanks for the tips on my 'ints', did not know either of those points.
ASKER
Hi Angelplay
thanks very much indeed for the quick and really helpful answer. It works perfectly.
Alison
thanks very much indeed for the quick and really helpful answer. It works perfectly.
Alison
You're most welcome Alison. Have a lovely day :)
Unlike other languages (like VB.Net), in VBA you must declare each variable as something. Otherwise, it becomes a Variant.
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Also, you should get in the habit of declaring integer variables as Long. Integer variables are padded with blank bits when stored in Windows apps, so they don't save any memory compared to Long variables. An Integer variable will cause a fatal overflow error if you exceed row 2^15-1 (32767)--something quite possible in a worksheet with 1048576 rows. The maximum value of a Long is 2^31-1 (2147483647)
Brad