If you’re working with data where dates are spread across rows — like shipment records, project logs, or attendance sheets — you might want to quickly find the earliest date in each row.

Sounds simple enough, right? But there’s a catch: blank cells.

By default, Google Sheets doesn’t handle blanks the way you’d expect. Instead of leaving a row empty when there’s no data, you’ll often see a confusing 0 or a weird placeholder date like 30-Dec-99. That happens because Sheets is interpreting blanks as zero values and then formatting them as dates.

In this post, we’ll go through a few easy (and some advanced) ways to get the minimum date per row while ignoring blanks in Google Sheets. And if the entire row is empty? You’ll get a clean blank, just the way it should be.

Why Do Blanks Break the MIN Formula?

Here’s the issue in plain English:

• If at least one date exists in the row → MIN works fine.
• If the row is completely untouched → Sheets reads it as 0.
• If a date was entered and later deleted → Sheets still remembers it, so you get 30-Dec-99 (that’s “zero” formatted as a date).

This is why we can’t rely on plain MIN. We need a formula that ignores blanks properly.

Example Data

Suppose you have the following data in the range A1:F7:

Notice how some rows are fully populated, some partially, and some completely empty. We want the formula in column G to return the earliest shipment date per row, ignoring blanks — and if a row has no shipments, just stay blank.

Method 1: Simple Drag-Down Formula

The easiest solution is to use FILTER with MIN. Place this in G2 and drag it down:

=TO_DATE(IFNA(MIN(FILTER(B2:F2, B2:F2))))

How it works:

• FILTER(B2:F2, B2:F2) → removes blank cells.
• MIN(...) → finds the earliest date left.
• IFNA(...) → returns blank instead of #N/A for empty rows.
• TO_DATE(...) → ensures the result is shown as a date, not a serial number.

✅ Great for small datasets.
❌ Needs to be copied down manually.

Method 2: Array Formula with BYROW + LAMBDA

With a LAMBDA formula, you can easily get min date ignoring blanks in each row in Google Sheets. The result spills automatically, so there’s no need to drag formulas down.

=BYROW(B2:F, LAMBDA(row, TO_DATE(IFNA(MIN(FILTER(row, row))))))

This applies the same calculation to each row in your range.

Why this method stands out:

• Spills automatically → no need to copy formulas down.
• Scales easily → new rows are handled automatically.
• Keeps your sheet clean → just one formula instead of many.

Method 3: The Old-School DMIN Hack

Before BYROW and LAMBDA existed, advanced users relied on DMIN. It’s clunky but still works:

=ArrayFormula(
   TO_DATE(
      IFERROR(1/DMIN(
         VSTACK("", TRANSPOSE(B2:F)), 
         SEQUENCE(ROWS(B2:B)), 
         VSTACK(IF(,,), IF(,,))
      )^-1)
   )
)

Here’s what’s happening:

• TRANSPOSE(B2:F) → flips rows into columns (because DMIN only works column-wise).
• VSTACK("", …) → adds a fake header row, which DMIN needs.
• SEQUENCE(ROWS(B2:B)) → generates the correct column index for each row.
• 1/x^-1 → forces an error on empty rows (instead of 0).
• IFERROR + TO_DATE → clean results, formatted as dates.

This method is more of a “formula hack” now. It’s fun to know, but for everyday work, stick to BYROW or the simple drag-down formula.

Conclusion

We’ve covered three reliable ways to get the min date ignoring blanks in each row in Google Sheets:

• Drag-down formula → quick and easy for smaller ranges.
• BYROW + LAMBDA → the cleanest, most modern option that updates automatically.
• DMIN hack → an older workaround, still useful for learning.

With these methods, you’ll always get the earliest valid date in each row—without running into errors, 0 values, or the confusing 30-Dec-99 placeholder.

Related Resources

• How to Exclude Zeros from MIN Function Results in Google Sheets
• Find Min or Max in a Google Sheets Matrix and Return Row Data
• Highlight Min Excluding Zeros and Blanks in Google Sheets
• Find the Column Header of the Min Value in Google Sheets
• Find and Filter the Min or Max Value in Groups in Google Sheets