Remove negative (- ) sign from a day count

Silvia Rangel

Hello Community!

I am trying to write a formula to calculate net work days between estimated and actual completion dates, in this formula l have a condition to show as blank the Design Completion Days cell when there are no estimated/actual design completion dates. The formula is working but is showing the "-" sign, l don't care to see if the date is past due, but to see the total days it takes for the contractor to submit the design.

Screenshot with formula for reference:

Jeff Reisman

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/317337#Comment_317337

The syntax for NETWORKDAYS is: NETWORKDAYS( start_date, end_date, [ holidays ])

The problem you're having is that in your formula you have the end date where the start date should be, so of course it's counting backwards! Your [Estimated Design Completion Date]@row should come before [Actual Design Completion Date]@row in your formula.

Jeff M.

Try this formula and see if it works for you. You shouldn't need the helper columns to complete this process. .

=IFERROR(NETWORKDAYS([Estimated Design Completion Date]@row, [Actual Design Completion Date]@row), "")

Silvia Rangel

Thanks @Jeff M. Still getting the negative sign next to the number:

Jeff Reisman

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/317337#Comment_317337

The syntax for NETWORKDAYS is: NETWORKDAYS( start_date, end_date, [ holidays ])

The problem you're having is that in your formula you have the end date where the start date should be, so of course it's counting backwards! Your [Estimated Design Completion Date]@row should come before [Actual Design Completion Date]@row in your formula.

Silvia Rangel

@Jeff R Good catch! That did it, thanks!

L_123

If someone finds this that is looking to count dates to either side of a center, you can use the ABS() function to find the absolute value as well.