DATEDIF and IF Statement in Excel, won't return correct result over 10 months

Question

I am attempting to determine the number of months and days between two dates to determine an group of individuals length of service, so that I can ascertain if they are within 2 ranges 0-6 mths and 6-23 mths, I have the following but I'm missing something, as it can't seem to handle 10 months or over, its returning 0-6 mths for those. I will also need to add a third range (0-6, 6-12 & 12-23) for a future project but am having difficulties with this one also?

=IF(DATEDIF(F155,G155,"ym")&" months " &DATEDIF(F155,G155,"md")&" days">="6 months 0 days", "6 - 23 Months","0 - 6 Months")

Answer 1

The problem is that you are comparing 2 strings that do not have the same format: For example for dates 1/1/2019 with 11/1/2019 you are comparing "10 months 0 days" vs "6 months 0 days" (a 2 digits number vs a 1 digit number in the begining strings). You have to make them the same format to be able to compare:

=IF(DATEDIF(F155,G155,"ym")&" months " &RIGHT("0"&DATEDIF(F155,G155,"md"),2)&" days">="06 months 00 days", "6 - 23 Months","0 - 6 Months")

This way you would be comparing "10 months 00 days" vs "06 months 00 days" and since now they have the same format it will work.

Answer 2

It might be simpler to use VLOOKUP .

And, if you expect to get a range of 12-23 months , why are you using the "ym" argument for DATEDIF ? That can never return a value more than 12 .

I suggest something like:

=VLOOKUP(DATEDIF(F155,G155,"m"),{0,"0 to 6 months";6,"6 to 12 months";12,"12 to 23 months";24,"undefined"},2)

Also, suggest you read about the different arguments for DATEDIF ; and you should probably read HELP for VLOOKUP also.

If you need to extend the table more, consider putting it into an Excel table instead of an array constant.