Article ID: 213328
Article Last Modified on 11/23/2006
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
This article was previously published under Q213328
SYMPTOMS
In Visual Basic for Applications, when you use the Date data type in an array, the Max and Min functions return zero.
WORKAROUND
Use Max and Min functions against individual items in an array to return the correct values.
MORE INFORMATION
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The example below demonstrates the use of the Min and Max functions against arrays. When the Min and Max functions are applied to the entire array of the Date data type, they return zero. However, when they are applied to the individual elements of the array the correct values are returned.
If you want to apply the Min and Max functions to the entire array you must use the Double data type, as demonstrated in the last part of the code.
NOTE: Microsoft Excel stores dates as serial numbers calculated as the number of days since January 01, 1900. The sample code in this article displays dates as serial numbers.
Sample Visual Basic Procedure
Option Explicit
Sub DateArrayTest()
Dim dtarr(1 To 2) As Date
Sheets("sheet1").Activate
dtarr(1) = "1963-01-17"
dtarr(2) = "1996-05-08"
ActiveSheet.Cells(1, 2).Value = "Entire Array"
ActiveSheet.Cells(1, 3).Value = "Individual Elements"
ActiveSheet.Cells(1, 4).Value = "Double"
ActiveSheet.Cells(2, 1).Value = "Min"
ActiveSheet.Cells(3, 1).Value = "Max"
'Evaluate the entire array - result is 0
ActiveSheet.Cells(2, 2).Value = Application.Min(dtarr)
ActiveSheet.Cells(3, 2).Value = Application.Max(dtarr)
'Evaluate individual elements of array - correct result
ActiveSheet.Cells(2, 3).Value = Application.Min(dtarr(1), dtarr(2))
ActiveSheet.Cells(3, 3).Value = Application.Max(dtarr(1), dtarr(2))
Dim dblarr(1 To 2) As Double
'Initialize the array
dblarr(1) = dtarr(1)
dblarr(2) = dtarr(2)
'Evaluate the Double datatype array - correct result
ActiveSheet.Cells(2, 4).Value = Application.Min(dblarr)
ActiveSheet.Cells(3, 4).Value = Application.Max(dblarr)
End Sub
REFERENCES
For additional information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
226118 OFF2000: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for Applications
For more information about array variables, click Microsoft Visual Basic Help on the Help menu, type using arrays in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.
Additional query words: 8.0 XL2000
Keywords: kbdtacode kbhowto kbprb kbprogramming KB213328
