Date & Time
Get the next scheduled event from an unsorted date list
Find the earliest upcoming date on or after a reference date with MINIFS and retrieve its event name with XLOOKUP.
Find the smallest date >= TodayRef even when rows are unsorted
MINIFS directly finds the next qualifying date even when the schedule is unsorted. Unlike approximate VLOOKUP or binary-search lookup modes, it does not require a sorted source; other XMATCH modes can also search unsorted data.
MINIFS(A2:A4, A2:A4, ">=" & C2) scans unsorted dates and returns the earliest date serial on or after TodayRef—or 0 if every event has already passed.
The example uses positive numeric date serials, with zero reserved for no result. On-or-after includes the reference day. If events tie on date, XLOOKUP returns the first matching row; use timestamps or a tie rule if needed.
| EventDate (A) | EventTitle (B) | Status vs 2026-04-15 (C2) |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-04-05 | Kickoff | Past (< Apr 15) |
| 2026-04-28 | Board Review | Upcoming (later) |
| 2026-04-18 | Security Audit | Next upcoming (MINIFS winner) |
Next upcoming event title and date formulas
Guarding d = 0 inside LET prevents serial 0 from formatting as "1900-01-00" or throwing #N/A when the schedule is complete.
=LET(d, MINIFS(A2:A4, A2:A4, ">=" & C2), IF(d=0, "None upcoming", XLOOKUP(d, A2:A4, B2:B4)))Next upcoming event ISO date
As of 2026-04-15, the earliest date >= Apr 15 is 2026-04-18 ("Security Audit").
=LET(d, MINIFS(A2:A4, A2:A4, ">=" & C2), IF(d=0, "None upcoming", TEXT(d, "yyyy-mm-dd")))Try the example
Use the original values or change them to test your understanding.