Thanks Ken that gets me closer, I didn't take into account the longest time spread may be different for different records.

example
COMPANY      ABCD 764200 E  2013,12,13   2013,12,19
COMPANY      BCYX 156095 L  2013,11,30   2013,12,08

[download]

The first record has 6 days and the second 8 days. I need both records with any duplicates or shorter time span dates removed. I'm not sure if I am explaining this well. I need each unique record so if it exists only in 1 file then I use that date. If records exists in multiple files then the one with the longest time frame.

Any suggestions, I sure appreciate your time and expertise

In reply to Re^2: Working with multiple records with different dates by rruser
in thread Working with multiple records with different dates by rruser

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