On 2011-09-09 22:34, epidata-list@lists.umanitoba.ca wrote:

Dear Forum Members,

I was looking a way to select earliest date from multiple date fields. Example,

Five date fields with dates as below, DateA - 13/01/2002 DateB - *13/01/2001* DateC - 13/01/2002 DateE - 13/01/2003 DateF - 13/01/2004

So, the programming to select earliest date (13/01/2001) in the field called "DateDiagnosis"

I have not tested this solution, but I would do something like:

I assume this is in analysis: define datetmp <dd/mm/yyyy>

datetmp = datea if (dateb < datetmp) then datetmp = dateb if (datec < datetmp) then datetmp = datec if (dated < datetmp) then datetmp = dated if (datee < datetmp) then datetmp = datee if (datef < datetmp) then datetmp = datef if (dateg < datetmp) then datetmp = dateg

* now the datetmp contains the earliest of the dates mentioned.

regards Jens Lauritsen EpiData Association