Pulling My Hair out over stupidest and most simple formula

[maximillianrg]

Cell J1 contains the following text: Remark: 02-JAN-2024 (CL):

Cell D1 contains this formula: =MID(" "&LEFT(TEXTAFTER(J1,"Remark"),18),FIND("-"," "&LEFT(TEXTAFTER(J1,"Remark"),18),1)-2,11)
Cell D1 Formula Results: 02-JAN-2024

Cell G1 contains this formula: =D1<=TODAY()
Cell G1 Formula Results: False

I am completely baffled as to why Cell G1 returns False rather than True?
If in cell D2 I put the formula: =D1+1 it returns 1/3/2024 so this tells me D1 is being treated like a real date but I am stumped

 

[Fluff]

The value in D1 is text, not a date.
Try

=--TEXTBEFORE(TEXTAFTER(J1," ")," ")

 

[maximillianrg]

Hello Fluff, Thank you for the fast reply. At first I was also thinking D1 was text, but if the formula in cell D2 is =D1+1 and the output is 1/3/2024, this tells me the contents of D1 is a number.

 

[Fluff]

No it's not a number. Both Mid & Textafter return text.
However if the text can be converted to a number it will be if you add 1.

 

[Z51]

D1 is text.

The formula you're using to create the "value" in D1 creates a string, not a date/numeric value. When you add 1 to a date formatted as text (as in D1), Excel converts the text to its date value and then adds 1, giving you 1/3/2024.

When you simply compare the text in D1 to an actual date value (which is what is returned from the TODAY() function), you're comparing apples to oranges. No conversion of text-to-datevalue is occurring during the comparison.