Declare value based on date range without year - excel

Question

I have about 10000 records in an Excel sheet (although I can import into Access 2010 if easier) and I need to set a value in a separate column if the dates fall between certain planting seasons. Year is irrelevant.
Thus if a date falls between a certain range, the column is filled in with its appropriate planting season.
Spring = 3/16 - 5/15
Summer 5/16-8/15
Fall 8/15-10/31
Everything else is Null
3/20/2015 and 4/16/2013 are both "Spring" in the seasons column
6/28/2011 and 8/1/2015 are both Summer, etc.
Ideas as to how I can do this? As I said I can do it in either Excel or Access, whichever approach is easier.

Answer 1

You can use the DateSerial Function in an Access query. For example your spring season for planting date could be expressed as ...
planting_date BETWEEN DateSerial(Year(planting_date), 3, 16) AND DateSerial(Year(planting_date), 5, 15)
You could use similar patterns in a Switch expression to determine the planting season for each planting_date ...
SELECT
y.planting_date,
Switch
(
y.planting_date BETWEEN DateSerial(Year(y.planting_date), 3, 16) AND DateSerial(Year(y.planting_date), 5, 15), 'spring',
y.planting_date BETWEEN DateSerial(Year(y.planting_date), 5, 16) AND DateSerial(Year(y.planting_date), 8, 15), 'summer',
y.planting_date BETWEEN DateSerial(Year(y.planting_date), 8, 16) AND DateSerial(Year(y.planting_date), 10, 31), 'fall',
True, Null
) AS season
FROM YourTable AS y;
If you want to store those season values in a field named planting_season, use the Switch expression in an UPDATE query ...
UPDATE YourTable AS y
SET y.planting_season =
Switch
(
y.planting_date BETWEEN DateSerial(Year(y.planting_date), 3, 16) AND DateSerial(Year(y.planting_date), 5, 15), 'spring',
y.planting_date BETWEEN DateSerial(Year(y.planting_date), 5, 16) AND DateSerial(Year(y.planting_date), 8, 15), 'summer',
y.planting_date BETWEEN DateSerial(Year(y.planting_date), 8, 16) AND DateSerial(Year(y.planting_date), 10, 31), 'fall',
True, Null
);

Answer 2

This formula assumes the first date is in cell A1. Enter the formula in cell B1 (or another empty cell from row 1):
=CHOOSE(MATCH(A1-DATE(YEAR(A1),1,0),{0;75;136;227;305},1),"","Spring","Summer","Fall","")
Now copy downward as far as needed.
That's it.
Note: this works by calculating the day of the year, for example March 16 is the 75th day of the year. Once the 'day of the year' is calculated, a simple binary match is performed on an array of day numbers that correspond to your planting seasons. Finally, the CHOOSE function is used to translate the MATCH results to the name of the season.
To edit your planting schedule, simply adjust this 'days of the year' array: {0;75;136;227;305}
Note: this is an extremely efficient self contained formula. No external helper columns are required and there are no IF functions, nested or otherwise.
Addendum: here is a variation that has a clause that deals with Leap Year:
=CHOOSE(MATCH(A1-DATE(YEAR(A1),1,0),{0;75;136;227;305}+(2=MONTH(DATE(YEAR(A1),2,29))),1),"","Spring","Summer","Fall","")

Answer 3

A few of helper columns to extract month and date would be useful (Assume values are at A1:A1000):
B1 = MONTH(A1)
C1 = DAY(A1)
D1 = DATE(2000, B1, C1)
We intentionally "cheat" about the year for easier comparison.
After that, there's nothing special to do here, just a lot of nested ifs:
IF(AND(D1 >= DATE(2000, 3, 16), D1 <= DATE(2000, 5, 15)), "Spring",
IF(AND(D1 >= DATE(2000, 5, 16), D1 <= DATE(2000, 8, 15)), "Summer",
IF(AND(D1 >= DATE(2000, 8, 16), D1 <= DATE(2000, 10, 31)), "Fall", "Winter")))