Determine the season based on the date

[megv]

Hey people

Is there anyway to determine the season based on a past date using a function

Thank
megv

 

[Guest]

I'm not sure if there is a specific date function but you
could always generate a wee table with a vlookup
referencing the input date and the tabel.

Eg.

Month Month Number Season
Jan 1 Winter
Feb 2 Winter
Mar 3 Spring
Apr 4 Spring
May 5 Spring
Jun 6 Summer
Jul 7 Summer
Aug 8 Summer
Sep 9 Autumn
Oct 10 Autumn
Nov 11 Autumn
Dec 12 Winter

Date Season
15-Feb-03 =vlookup(month(B18),C415,2,false)

15-Feb-03 Winter

Hope this is of some use.

Regards
Patrick

 

[Alan]

Hey people,

Is there anyway to determine the season based on a past date using a
function?


Thanks
megv

Hi Megv,

You could use something like this:

=CHOOSE(ROUND(VALUE(TEXT(A1,"MM"))/12*4,0)+1,"Summer","Autumn","Winter
","Spring")

You would need to decide on your seasonal boundries of course.

I believe that the seasons officially start on 1 Mar, 1 Jun, 1 Sep,
and 1 Dec so we are now in Autumn (officially even if it does still
feel more like summer):

http://www.xtra.co.nz/cool/0,,1811-719931,00.html

However, be aware that in some parts of the world it may not now be
autumn (shock!) and that in equatorial regions the seasons might not
be very apparent at all, making the designations entirely arbitary as
a way to record when something happened.

Take the example of someone saying that the 2003 Rugby World Cup was
played in Spring 2003. 100% correct, but if you didn't actually know
when it was, the statement could be very ambiguous as to whether is
was Mar 2003, May 2003, Sep 2003 or Nov 2003.

HTH,

Alan.

 

[Harlan Grove]

Is there anyway to determine the season based on a past date using a
function?

Crude, and for northern hemisphere:

=CHOOSE(INT((MONTH(SomeDate+11)+2)/3),"Winter","Spring","Summer","Fall")