Automatically update a cell in Excel with the current date anytime any cell in a column is updated or changed

Question

Not sure if this is possible in Excel, but I would like cell K9 to be updated with today's date every time ANY cell in K11:K119 is changed. Some cells in K11:K119 are blank, but can have data entered into them at any time. Cells in K11:K119 that already have data could change. So I would like cell K9 to update with today's date any time any single blank cell in K11:K119 is updated with data, or any time any single cell in K11:K119 with data is changed. Hope that makes sense.

Answer 1

Place the following Event macro in the worksheet code area:

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)
    Dim r1 As Range, r2 As Range
    Set r1 = Range("K9")
    Set r2 = Range("K11:K119")
    If Not Intersect(Target, r2) Is Nothing Then
    Application.EnableEvents = False
        r1.Value = Date
    Application.EnableEvents = True
    End If
End Sub

The macro monitors your changes to the worksheet. If you change any value in the input range, the cell with the date is refreshed.

Because it is worksheet code, it is very easy to install and automatic to use:

1. right-click the tab name near the bottom of the Excel window
2. select View Code - this brings up a VBE window
3. paste the stuff in and close the VBE window

If you have any concerns, first try it on a trial worksheet.

If you save the workbook, the macro will be saved with it. If you are using a version of Excel later then 2003, you must save the file as .xlsm rather than .xlsx

To remove the macro:

1. bring up the VBE windows as above
2. clear the code out
3. close the VBE window

To learn more about macros in general, see:

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm

and

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee814735(v=office.14).aspx

To learn more about Event Macros (worksheet code), see:

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/event.htm

Macros must be enabled for this to work!

Answer 2

If you don't want to enable macros, try something simpler:

=IF(COUNT(K11:K119)>=0,TODAY(),0)

COUNT(range) will always be ≥0 (so it doesn't matter what you put as the third argument) and it always updates when any member of the range is changed.