compare date in cell with today() for conditional formatting

Question

I am trying to create conditional formatting where I compare dates in the cells of a column with today(). However, when I check with evaluate formula, today() gives a short date ( 44231 ) and my cells are formatted as 24/08/2021 The result of =B2<today() thus results in false even though it is true. How can I solve this?

Answer 1

You need to convert your string into a date value, which can be done using the DATEVALUE() function, explained here . Be very careful working with that function, because it's related to your regional settings: does "01/02/2021" mean the first of February or the second of January?