How to find the earliest date in a list in Excel
Formula (Excel and Google Sheets)
=MIN(B2:B9)Use =MIN(B2:B9). The earliest date is the smallest number; MIN skips blanks and text.
- Result on the example
- 3/8/2026 in
E1 - Works in
- Excel 2019 and later, including Microsoft 365
- Google Sheets
- Same formula
See it work
The formula is already in E1. Change any input and the result updates, or edit the formula to experiment.
How it works
Dates are numbers, so the earliest date is the smallest one and MIN finds it. MIN skips the blank cell and the text "TBD", so they don't turn into 0.
=MIN(B2:B9)Result46089
B2:B98 rows × 1 col: 4/17/2026, 3/8/2026, (empty), 5/1/2026, …A range: 8 cells in one column.
MIN(B2:B9)46089MIN: Smallest number.- number1
B2:B98 rows × 1 col: 4/17/2026, 3/8/2026, (empty), 5/1/2026, …
- number1
In Google Sheets
The same formula works in Google Sheets: =MIN(B2:B9). We ran it in Google Sheets mode on the same data and it returns 3/8/2026.
Other ways to do it
Each one was run on the same example sheet.
| Formula | Result | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| =SMALL(B2:B9,1) | 3/8/2026 | The same; change 1 to 2 for the second earliest. |
| =MINIFS(B2:B9,B2:B9,">="&DATE(2026,4,1)) | 4/2/2026Different result | The earliest date from April on: add a condition with MINIFS. Earliest date on or after April 1. |
Common mistakes
- If no cell holds a date, MIN returns 0, shown as 1/0/1900. Wrap it:
=IF(COUNT(B2:B9),MIN(B2:B9),""). - Dates stored as text are skipped. If the result looks too late, check for left-aligned dates.
Try it yourself
Same data, empty answer cell. Your formula is graded instantly, then re-checked on changed data, so a typed-in number won't pass.
Find the earliest date in a list
E1, return the earliest ship date in B2:B9.Questions
How do I find the latest date?
=MAX(B2:B9).
How do I return the shipment with the earliest date?
=XLOOKUP(MIN(B2:B9),B2:B9,A2:A9).
Checked by running on 2026-10-30: every formula and result on this page was calculated by the Spreadsheet Practice formula engine, in both Excel and Google Sheets modes.