Max Date Same Field

[Waller]

I have a file which has concatenated multiple dates into one field separated by a comma. Is there a way I can reference the max date within the field in a new column?

Thanks in advance

[Luke_C]

@Waller 

Here's one approach with some fake data, essentially use the text to columns tool to split out the concatenated dates into rows, and then summarize by max date. 

[raychase]

The following works if the dates (within a single record) are always in chronological order (ie. max date on the far right):

Otherwise, you can include a RecordID, clear spaces from the concatenations, text-to-rows on the comma delimiter, and finally, summarize by RecordID to get the MAX(Date):

[Waller]

Thanks for the help. I've followed your flow below but it's coming back with mixed results - I think it might be because the date field is a string and it isn't able to distinguish the max/min date. I've tried to change the type to date but it didn't like it and brought back null values

[Luke_C · Accepted solution]

Try the attached, I swapped the autofield for a date time parse based on your data. 

[Waller]

Thanks! This has worked (I was trying to use existing column for Summarize output - new column brought back correct dates and format).

Thanks for the help

[Cathy_L]

Your post has the same use case as I do, except that my date format is different and I require minimum. I was encountering an error where the rows with 1 date seem to be going through as Date format, while the ones with multiple dates are String that when the DateTime tool is used, the ones with 1 date is not converted properly. Please see here: https://community.alteryx.com/t5/Alteryx-Designer-Desktop-Discussions/Min-Date-Same-Field-Comma-Sepa...

Wondering if anyone here could help please? Thank you!