title: Using Excel to Find Sequences of Consecutive Dates in a Column
body: <p>I have a column of dates that are in the format: yyyymmdd.
  An example is shown below:</p>
  
  <pre><code>19480110
  19480111
  19480115
  19480119
  19480124
  19480130
  19480131
  19480201
  19480204
  19480209
  19480210
  19481225
  19481226
  19490212
  19491210
  19500108
  19500208
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I would like to be able to identify ONLY the cells that have 3 OR MORE consecutive dates. In this case, the cells with the following values would be highlighted: </p>
  
  <pre><code>19480130 
  19480131 
  19480201
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Currently, I have a formula of the form:</p>
  
  <pre><code>=IF(A2=A1+1, "Match", "")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, it fails to recognize instances when there is a change in the month, as in the case of this example: It only prints match next to the cell that has '19480131' in it. Is there a way to account for changes in months with the present formatting?</p>
  
  <p>Thank you!</p>