Setting flag when task falls within a date range

thur_415

At my company we have certain dates when we do not make changes to our website (holidays usually). I'd like to be able to highlight or somehow flag a task if it falls within one of the freeze date ranges. Is there a way to do this? 

 

Mike Wilday

How many different freeze ranges are there? If there aren't many, then you could build a nested if statement that would flag the row if the date is greater than or less than the date range. If there are a ton, I would consider keeping those ranges documented in a separate spreadsheet and do a countif statement that uses cross-sheet references to flag if there is the date on your current row meets the requirements of the holiday ranges on the other sheet. If it does, and the count is greater than 0 you could have it flag the row. 

1. Create the separate sheet "Holiday Dates" with the holiday start date and holiday end date.
2. Create a new column in your project sheets with a symbol column type of FLAG. 
3. Create the following formula by using cross-sheet formulas.

=IF(COUNTIFS({Cross Ref - Start Date Range 1}, <=[Due Date]1, {Cross Ref -End Date Range 2}, >=[Due Date]1), 1, 0)

To create a cross-sheet reference you have to click on the link in the formula helper to reference another sheet.

See my screenshot to see the formula in action.

For more on Cross sheet references: 

• https://help.smartsheet.com/videos/advanced-cross-sheet-formulas
• https://help.smartsheet.com/videos/cross-sheet-formulas
• https://www.smartsheet.com/blog/powerful-and-flexible-cross-sheet-formulas