Need to return a cell value in a row where a date was selected from a column

Question

I'm looking for a formula for OS Numbers and can't seem to find it.
I use the MIN function to select the earliest date in a range of cells.  The dates all flow down one column.  I need to be able to have numbers return the contents of a cell in the same row that was selected as the earliest date.
For example:
ID
Exp. Date
3
4
LJ-1
May-2014
LJ-2
Jun-2014
LJ-3
Jul-2014
LJ-4
Aug-2014
LJ-5
Sep-2014
I need to search for the earliest date in the 'Exp. Date' column and once it finds it, return the value from the 'ID' column.
So, in this case, i would need a formula to find May-2014 and return LJ-1 to the cell.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi 86,
Rearrange your table then add another table to find the result:
A2 in Table 1-1 will find the earliest date in Table 1 without having to sort Table 1.
A2 contains this formula
=MIN(Table 1::A)
B2 in Table 1-1 uses VLOOKUP to find which ID matches that MIN date.
The reason for rearranging your table (Table 1) is that VLOOKUP compares a search value to the values in the leftmost column of a specified collection.
(in this case, it looks in the leftmost column of the range Table1::A:B, then returns a match from column 2 of that range).
I forgot to include "Exact Match" in the VLOOKUP formula. Is that what you want, or "Close Match"?
Edit: I don't suppose that matters because MIN will always give an exact match. Duh!
Regards,
Ian.