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Excel - Hiding Negative Dates Using an IF Formula - Episode 552

904 views · Published 20 July 2009 · 1:44 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2009 · Education

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial: Hiding Negative Dates Using an IF Formula in Excel.

Welcome back to another MrExcel netcast! In our previous video, we received a suggestion from Van on how to simplify the birthday suggestion formula. In today's video, we will be implementing that suggestion and also addressing a common issue that arises when using the TODAY function. 

As we saw in the previous video, using the TODAY function to calculate the number of days until a birthday can result in negative numbers for birthdays that have already passed. This can be confusing for the user of the spreadsheet. To solve this issue, we will be using the IF function. 

We will edit our formula and add an IF statement that checks if the calculation of C2-TODAY is less than zero. If it is, we will use the quotation marks to display nothing in the cell. If it is not, we will continue with the calculation. This way, the negative numbers for past birthdays will not be displayed. 

Thanks to Van's suggestion, we now have a much more efficient and user-friendly formula for calculating birthdays. We appreciate all the suggestions and feedback from our viewers. Stay tuned for more helpful tips and tricks in our upcoming netcasts. Thank you for watching MrExcel!"

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Table of Contents:
(00:00) Issue with negative birthdays for past dates
(00:33) Solution using IF function
(00:55) Calculation for future dates
(01:14) Positive and negative values for birthdays
(01:33) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

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In todays podcast, Episode 552, I use the IF function to hide values that are negative. This is a formula-based solution. In tomorrows podcast, a different way to solve the problem using number formatting.

This blog is the video podcast companion to the book, Learn Excel from MrExcel. Download a new two minute video every workday to learn one of the 277 tips from the book!

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