Specify condition within preset comparison operator?

Question

I am experimenting with Named Functions in Google Sheets and trying to make a function to take start and end date arguments to look between within a custom formula. I cannot figure out how to put the dates in a preset comparison and work properly. (i.e. ">=start_date") will not accept the start_date as an argument of the named function.If the start_date variable is outside the parentheses, a formula parse error occurs.

I want to be able to input a date (i.e."1/1/1969") into my function and have the ">=" to be automatic.

For a simpler experiment I want to have MYFUNC perform a SUMIF after checking if a given value is ">=":

Named Function syntax:

MYFUNC(sum_range,criteria)

Function definition:

=SUMIF(sum_range,">=criteria")

Example:

=MYFUNC(A1:A69,2) 

My goal is that this example would sum the range A1:A69 if it was greater than or equal to two.

Named function syntax:

=MYFUNC(sum_range,date_range,start_date,end_date,criteria_range,criteria,placeholder)

Formula definition of my named function:

=IF(SUMIFS(sum_range,date_range,">=start_date",date_range,"<=end_date",criteria_range,criteria)=0,placeholder, SUMIFS(sum_range,date_range,">=start_date",date_range,"<=end_date",criteria_range,criteria))

I attempted populating the MYFUNC start_date and end_date as "1/1/1969" with and without quotes. This does not populate the function with a date and results in zero value while if I use the formula definition in a cell, it functions and sums the values properly.

Answer 1

To specify a condition within a preset comparison operator in a Google Sheets named function, you can use the IF function in the same way as you would in a regular formula.

As an example you use the following ;

function compareValues(val1, val2) {
  return IF(val1>val2, "val1 is greater than val2", "val1 is not greater than val2");
}