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I think this formula
 
IF({Last Deployment} = 'MM/DD/YY', 'MM/DD/YY', "*")
 
says:
 
IF (the value of the field Last Deployment is a date, show the date, otherwise pop in an asterisk (instead of #ERROR!))
 
But what I’m getting now is either an  * or #ERROR! - pretty much the opposite of what I am trying to accomplish.
 
Help!

Hey ​@lwetherby,

 

Agreed: the #ERROR! is not very appealing.

 

Are you looking to accomplish something like this?

 

If so, I think you want the following formula:

IF(Date, DATETIME_FORMAT(Date, "MM/DD/YY"), "*")

 

To explain what the formula does, it first checks if `Date` is empty or not.

If it is NOT empty, then it will format the date with the “MM/DD/YY” specifier (you can learn more about the function here: https://support.airtable.com/docs/supported-format-specifiers-for-datetime-format).

If it IS empty, then it will return the asterisk.

 

I hope this helps!

The issue is that you're comparing {Last Deployment} to the text string 'MM/DD/YY', which doesn't make sense if {Last Deployment} is a date field. That comparison will never be true, and worse, if {Last Deployment} is empty or invalid, Airtable might throw an error depending on how the rest of the formula is interpreted.

Here's the correct formula

IF(
  {Last Deployment},
  DATETIME_FORMAT({Last Deployment}, 'MM/DD/YY'),
  "*"
)


In this formula, {Last Deployment} by itself in the condition checks whether there’s a value in that field. If there is, DATETIME_FORMAT({Last Deployment}, 'MM/DD/YY') converts the date into a readable string. If there’s no date, the formula returns "*" instead.

Taha, Airtable Advisor

Hey! I agarre with ​@BuildForAT. However, for further reference, is Last Deployment date or lookup field? 

We’re not there yet - sorry, I marked ​@BuildForAT’s answer best, but then it turned out not to work - when I plugged it in, I was still getting either a date or #ERROR!

Maybe I should just try to fix this formula, which is currently returning either a date or #ERROR! - this is where the data/date in the {Last Deployment} field is coming from:

DATETIME_FORMAT(ARRAYSLICE({Last Last Day BOG (from Link to Forms)}, 1, 1), 'MM/DD/YY')
 
If it makes a difference {Last Last Day BOG (from Link to Forms)} is a look up field.
 
I think I need to add an IF somewhere - but I’m not sure where.
 
Thank you!

No worries! Thanks for clarifying.

In that case, you can use this formula in your new formula field:
 

IF(ISERROR({Last Deployment}), "*", {Last Deployment})

Since {Last Deployment} is already a string we don’t need to do DATETIME_FORMAT like I originally suggested.

If you would like to fix {Last Deployment} directly, that’s possible but the formula gets a bit ugly!

Also, may I ask why you’re using Arrayslice here instead of a Rollup field like this:
 

 

You can use the MAX function to get the latest date (if that’s what you’re aiming for)
 

That’s great! Using a Rollup with the MAX(values) function fixed my Last Last Day field, so I don’t need my Last Deployment field (which was trying to fix my Last Last Day field).

I did plug your formula into my Last Deployment field before I realized that - the dates looked like this: 2025-07-18T00:00:00.000Z. ouch 😂

Also - instead of an #ERROR!, I’m getting nothing - which is much preferred!

Thanks for all your help.

~Lisa

Yes, sometimes it’s best to give the full context so we can give you the best solution at any point in the pipeline.

 

Awesome that the Rollup field worked!

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