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What is the proposed idea/solution?

Frustratingly there's still no Max_Date() or Min_Date() function to use within formula fields. There is obviously Max() and a Min(), but ultimately they're designed for checking numbers and returning the largest or smallest, and not dates.

How does is solve the user problems?

Have a read through this and you'll get an idea of the users struggle. 4 years have passed, and I face this exact same issue again now.

https://community.airtable.com/t5/other-questions/how-do-i-return-the-most-recent-of-two-dates/td-

In my case, I'm trying to write;


MAX(LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Movie}),LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Network}))

But unfortunately the Airtable Formula returns a zero. Ultimately, I'd like the ability to write this;

 
MAX_DATE(LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Movie}),LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Network}))
or
MIN_DATE(LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Movie}),LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Network}))

And have the date returned. Importantly, the above needs to work with an array of dates, and not just two. So for example;

MAX_DATE(LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Movie}),LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Network}),LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Coverage}))
or
MIN_DATE(LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Movie}),LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Network}),LAST_MODIFIED_TIME({Coverage}))

 

Who is the target audience?

Anyone who's needing to simply compare an array of dates within a formula field and have the largest (or the smallest) date returned, with the correct date formatting applied to the return.

This is an excellent product suggestion.

In case you are not aware of the current ways of determining the min/max date in a list of dates, I recently wrote up this explanation which was inspired by this post with a similar situation. (The reference to rollup fields is a bit misleading in that post because the multiple date fields happen to be rollup fields. When you are trying to find a min/max date in a linked record you use a slightly different technique, which is in the thread with my explanation)

That's a great formula @kuovonne - the user will eventually go cross-eyed if their base is date heavy, but at least it works as expected with several LAST_MODIFIED_TIME() field returns.

Hoping that the formula field can see Airtable developer love this year (2023).

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