How do I return the most recent of two dates?

[Patrick_Kenned1]

I have two rollups, one for “latest morning absences” and another for “latest evening absences”. What formula do I use to return the latest of the two?

[Andrew_Johnson1]

What is the field type of “latest morning absences” and “latest evening absences”?

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

MAX() is the function you need.

[Ptt_Pch]

As, @Elias_Gomez_Sainz said, there’s the MAX(VALUES) function :winking_face:

Just in case, this might interest you

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[Patrick_Kenned1]

Hello, I was able to create a Formula field and use:

IF({Latest Morning Absence} < {Latest Evening Absence}, {Latest Evening Absence}, {Latest Morning Absence})

to return the most recent of the two date rollups :slightly_smiling_face: I tried MAX(value1, value2) but it did not work for me. Maybe I had the syntax incorrect?

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

A Rollup gets several values and do some function with all of them, so we have assumed you want the most recent in every of those 2 fields. BTW, how do you get that Latest Morning Absence?

If you just want to compare 2 dates (however they are generated/entered), you can use your formula with operator, as well the IS_AFTER() and IS_BEFORE() functions.

[Patrick_Kenned1]

Hi Elias,
Latest Morning Absence is a rollup field, and was one of the options in the drop down menu when I started working out the formula. Sorry - I am fairly new to Airtable ways and means, does that answer your question?

Thank you for the suggestions!

[Elias_Gomez_Sai]

No problem! Just clarifying that what you wanted is easier than we thinked of :grinning_face_with_sweat: But, in those Rollup fields, how do you get that Latest Item? I think MAX() is the only way.

Of course to check if a date is most recent than other is that easy :winking_face:

[Patrick_Kenned1]

Ah, gotcha, yes the two rollup fields are obtained by MAX(values) :slightly_smiling_face:

[Ptt_Pch]

Assuming your rollups fields are formatted as « simple dates » (no time field included), I did try your first formula, without the empty spaces, and it seems to work… :woman_shrugging:
({Form 1} in the screenshot below)

IF({Latest Morning Absence}<{Latest Evening Absence},{Latest Evening Absence},{Latest Morning Absence})

Following your first formula I tried this one too ({Form 2} in the screenshot below)

IF(
	IS_BEFORE(
			{Latest Morning Absence},
		{Latest Evening Absence}
		),
	{Latest Evening Absence},
{Latest Morning Absence}
)

The results of both of these 2 formulas are formatted as dates (local) without a time field as the 2 rollup fields are.

Edit : 2nd screenshot where {Latest Morning Absence} < {Latest Evening Absence} for one of the Test