Comments on: How to use IF function in Excel: examples for text, numbers, dates, blanks

IF is one of the most popular and useful functions in Excel. Generally, you use an IF statement to test a condition and to return one value if the condition is met, and another value if the condition is not met. Continue reading →

Comments page 136. Total comments: 4830

  1. I need to use IF function on below case;

    If one item is available from a column, then Yes or else No. Please advise the fuction.

    1. Hi Jay,

      Here is an example:

      =IF(A1="item you want", "yes", "no")

  2. hi,

    In my data all the values are in Indian currency in rupees. While I create pivot table summary, all the values comes with in rupees. But I needs those figure should come in Lacs.

    Thanks in advance.

  3. HI,

    I WANT TO CREATE IN EXCEL 2007 Which shows that in a selected cell (specifically Column K in spreadsheet in each cell downwards)if I will type a Value on it(numbers. 1-9) it will correspond to a word. say for example 1 means okay, 2 means not yet and etc. some sort of shortcut techniques in typing for that word. what kind of Formula should I use? Please let me know.

    Thanks Svetlana!

    1. Hi JAS,

      You can use nested IF functions, like this:

      =IF(A1=1, "ok", IF(A1=2, "not yet", IF(A1=3, "smth else", "")))

      Excel 2007 allows adding up to 64 nested IF in one formula.

      1. Great, thanks a lot!

  4. I created a quiz and used data validation. I want to get 1 mark for the answer of 42 otherwise 0. I used if(A4="42", 1,0).it give me 0. am I using wrong syntax

    1. Hi Istkar,

      You don't need to enclose numbers in double quotes unless you want them to be treated as text strings. Once you remove "", your formula will work great:
      =IF(A4=42,1,0)

  5. can you help with the below:
    i am creating a sheet for associates in my company. 1 tab has all details of the associate that a company database should have. column 'F' has the designation of the associate and column "A" has names
    what i want to do (in another tab in the same excel). wherever column "F" has designation as manager the cell in the new tab should show me the name of that associate.
    eg: if cell value f4=manager then value in new cell (in new tab) should be name as in A4.

    i want the same to be applied to every cell.

    1. Hi Ankit,

      Hopefully, this is what you are looking for:
      =IF(F4="manager", A4, "")

  6. How many times i can add IF in one formula.

    1. In Excel 2013, Excel 2010 and Excel 2010, you can add up to 64 nested IF functions. In older versions of Excel, you can use a maximum of 7 IFs in one formula.

  7. Hi, Svetlana!
    I'm trying to make an Excel 2013 formula that will extract a person's last name from a cell that has their full name. Unfortunately, the fullname cell can contain any of these formats:
    First Last
    First M. Last
    F. Middle Last
    F. Middle Second_middle Last Jr.

    The formula to extract the last name form a "First Last" cell is easy (where A5 is the fullname cell):
    =RIGHT(A5,LEN(A5)-FIND(" ",A5))
    ...but I need to be able to find the last instance of a space character to lead off the RIGHT() function location. That would work for the first three examples, but not the last. Not sure what to do about that one, unless maybe an exclusion list of common suffix titles?

    I'd be most interested in your help.
    Cheers!
    Ted

  8. I have created a spreadsheet for working out the pay of our employees. The data starts in Row 14. Col A contains that week's pay date eg. 24/3/15 etc. Col B has the total hours the employee has worked that week. Column C then multiplies the hours from Col B by the employees pay rate to give me their gross pay for that week. Cols D-F contain various deductions relevant to that employee & Col G lists net pay. Following that there are 4 more rows containing the above info with the hours listed as 0 unless it is used for that week's pay, and the sixth row adds up the totals for that month & displays them as *??.??.

    In cell b3 I want a formula that tells me how many hours the employee worked in the last 4 weeks e.g..it will look down column B, find the last hours entry (ie. the last number that is greater than 0 & does not have an *), then add to this number the previous 3 weeks hours (ie. the previous 3 numbers greater than 0 & without an *). If it makes it easier I am happy to enter in the cell reference that contains the last hours entry (rather than Excel working that out) as I am not going to need this information on a regular basis.

    In cell b4 I want to do do the same thing as b3 except i want to know how many hours the employee worked in the last 52 weeks (or if they haven't actually worked 52 weeks yet, their total hours so far).

    I'm sure that this is not actually a difficult formula to write but excel is not my forte! Please let me know if you need further clarification.

  9. Thanks a lot Svetlana that worked as expected :)

    Cheers

  10. I've two columns A & B, out of this i want to check against A column name if B column is not blank then it should show complete else Partial, for more understanding see below example

    C-A C-B Output
    A ABC12 Complete
    A 105 Complete
    A 13 Complete
    B 213 Partial
    B ABC12 Partial
    B Partial

    1. Hi Rajendra,

      I am afraid our blog engine has made a mess of your data :( I understand about B column being non-blank. But exactly what shall we check against A column?

  11. If somebody can please help me.
    Mentioned below is my problem
    I have a time format and I am trying to put an If formula which should give me a yes or no if its greater than or equal to a specific time

    FOR EXAMPLE:
    If (04:07:47)is greater than or equal to (04:00:00)then YES else NO

    1. Hi Raymond,

      If both times are entered in some cells, then you can use a simple IF formula like this:

      =IF(A2>=B2, "yes", "no")

      Where B2 is 04:00:00.

      If you want to specify one of the values directly in the formula, then you will need the TIMEVALUE function is addition to IF:

      =IF(A2>=TIMEVALUE("4:00:00"), "yes", "no")

  12. Thank you Svetlana! To take this one step further and I tried couldn't get it to work

    =IF(A1="put",C1-B1,IF(A1="call",B1-C1,"")) then take answer of this and calculate the difference between the answer and D1 *100* E1

    1. This is more in line with what I was thinking all wrapped up in one formula - =IF(A1="put",C1-B1,IF(A1="call",B1-C1,"")) --- This is the first operation

      IF cell O25 is a positive number subtract U25 or IF cell O25 is a negative number add U25 --- This is the second operation

      How would you write them separate and within on formula sequence?

      Thank you again!

      1. Hi Jason,

        Please specify if these are AND or OR conditions?

        For example, if A1="put" and O25 is a positive number, then what do we do?

        If A1="put" and O25 is a negative number, then... ?

        And the same for A1="call", please.

        1. What I believe I'm trying to do is calculate the positive or negative variance (on a non absolute basis)

          My apologies, so I have your formula =IF(A1="put",C1-B1,IF(A1="call",B1-C1,"")) ... in column "U"

          And in column "V" I'm trying to calculate the actual difference between cell O25 and U25(i.e. Add if a number is negative, Subtract if a number is positive)say if U25 Is positive and O25 in positive then O25-U25 or if U31 is negative and O31 is positive then U31+O31

          I was also would like to combine this formula with your =IF(A1="put",C1-B1,IF(A1="call",B1-C1,""))

          1. Let me check if my understanding is correct. If values in both columns U and O are positive, then O25-U25. If a value in either column or in both columns are negative, then U325+O25. If so, I would suggest that you keep the formula in column U as is and put the following one in column V (it is actually for cell V25, but you can easily adjust the references:
            =IF(AND(U25>0, O25>0), O25-U25, U25+O25)

            Also, please note that the formula equates zero to negative numbers. If you want to treat 0 as a positive number, then change the logical test to AND(U25>=0, O25>=0)

            If I misunderstand something, please correct me.

            1. Nope you made my nonsense into sense;-) So in that last formula =IF(AND(U25>0, O25>0), O25-U25, U25+O25)... how would I make any negative result display 0 and any positive result show the full value of the calculation?

  13. i need help putting this in the if function, if an employee has a taxable income of greater $739, then the federal income equals $110.85 plus the federal tax rate found in cell B19 multiply by the taxable income excess of $739. if an employee taxable income is $739 or less, the federal tax witheld equals the taxable income multiplied by the federal taxrate found in b18

  14. HOW TO MULTIPLY ONE VALUE OF A CELL BY THE PERCENT OF ANOTHER CELL

    1. Hi Thello,

      For example like this:
      =A1*(A1*10%)

      If you are looking for something different, please provide a bit more details.

  15. Hi Svetlana how would you write this all in the same cell ... (If Cell A1 says “PUT” then Subtract cell B1 from C1 OR If Cell A1 says “CALL” then Subtract C1 from B1)

    1. Hi Jason,

      You need a nested IF like this:
      =IF(A1="put",C1-B1,IF(A1="call",B1-C1,""))

  16. Hi,
    I'm trying to get my formula to say if I5=Y or N/A then 0 value, if not then 1 value. I'm using this: If(I5="Y""N/A",0,1) but I'm getting the value 0 no matter what's in I5. I5 is either Y, N, or N/A, and I only want it to populate when there's an "N". I thought the problem was that "N" and "N/A" both contain "N", but I typed in "fill" to test and still 0 value. Please help. Thanks!

    1. Hi Felicia,

      Since you have 2 conditions, you should include the OR statement in your formula, like this:

      =IF(OR(I5="Y", I5="N/A"), 0, 1)

  17. I am trying to populate a cell with the description "Current", "30 Days" and so forth.

    I know I can use this Formula

    =IF(L2>0,, "Current")
    =IF(L2>30,, "30 Days")
    =IF(L2>60,, "60 Days")
    =IF(L2>90,, "90 Days")
    =IF(L2>120,, "120 Days")

    How do I make a full sentence (Combining all) of this so i don't have to do this individually?

  18. Hi,

    How can I restrict the cell in excel, where user have to enter the date in "MM/DD/YYYY" format only.

  19. How could we change the color of the Cell if the logical_test is true or false?
    Thank you.

  20. Hi,

    in column A user will be entering date. In column B the month will get updated automatically with =Month(A1) function.
    Now I want if the cell of A column is blank, then in column B will be showing "-" & the moment user enter the date it will return the month.

    What would be the formula in excel... pl surrgest

    1. Hi!

      I believe this is what you are looking for:

      =IF(A1="", "-", MONTH(A1))

  21. =if(A1=12," ","12"),if(A1=8,"16"),if(A1=16,"8")

    can anyone fix it... it will a very helpfull for me...

    thank you very much

  22. Hi there I am wondering if you can help me
    I have the following data across columns and the desired outcome would be merge the cells sideways into a new cell and delete the duplicates.
    Column J Column K Column L etc
    Row 2: Article sign up | City1 | City2 = Article sign up, city 1, city 2
    Row 3: Article Sign up | Article sign up | City 1 | City 1 = Article sign up, city 1
    Row 4: Article sign up | Article sign up | City 2 | City 2 = Article sign up, city 2

    Can you help?

  23. Hello everyone,
    I'm looking for a formula that looks at date ranges - so if the date of the line item is between 'date 1' and 'date 2' then display the line item in on a separate sheet.
    Similarly if the date of the line item is NOT within 'date 1' and 'date 2' then display the line item on another sheet.

    Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

    1. Hi Lorna,

      You need two different formulas like these:

      1. If between 2 dates:

      =IF(AND("line item date">date1, "line item date"<date2), "line item", "")

      2. If outside the date range (not within 2 dates):

      =IF(OR("line item date"<date1, "line item date">date2), "line item", "")

      If you can provide more details about your date structure (in what columns are dates and where are line items), I think we will get the real formula.

  24. Hi Everyone,
    Nice Day !

    All medical representative send their reports in 2 excel sheets,
    1.sales Visit – with date,product,doctors list
    2.Office Word

    now i have to compare these 2 lists and make a new report that whether they have send report or not according to names and date.

    if they send 01 mar, then i put yes
    if they not send 02 mar, then i put no

    can anyone tell me which formula can use to compare these 2 list and make it automatically “yes” and “no” according to medical rep names and dates.

    Advanced Thanks for reply

  25. it doesn´t paste all the formula.. sorry

  26. =(IF(B2=21,B2=40,B2=71,B291,"VFEL"))

  27. Hello,
    I ave a situation, i whish you can help me with: i need to work on a formula with the if funtion. i have to mark a range of values, for example: all the values are in the cell "B2"

    range: 1 - 100
    markA: 1 - 20 ( "a" )
    markB: 21 - 35 ( "b" )
    markC: 36 - 50 ( "c" )
    markD: 51 - 89 ( "d" )
    markE: 90 - 100 ( "e" )

    i have try the next formula:
    =(IF(B2=21,B2=40,B2=71,B291,"VFEL"))

    but it says the is a error, can you help out ?

    thanks

    1. Hi Ussiels,

      I am not sure I exactly understand the task, but it looks very similar to this one that can be solved using nested IFs.

      Is this what you are looking for?

  28. Hello,

    I have a due date column that is calculated at 30 days after a transfer date column. However, when I put the formula "=A1+30" in the due date column it returns a date of 01/05/1900 for rows that don't have a date entered in the transfer date column. How do I get this to stay blank unless there's a date entered in the transfer column?

    Thank you,
    Jordan

  29. Hi,
    I'm looking for a formula that will return the last value greater than 0 from a range if the cell initially referenced is equal to 0.
    Seems like it should be easy but I'm stuck on it.

    Thanks

  30. Hi,
    I want to have a formula whereby i am doing an itinerary costing. i have a start date and then dates with prices of accommodation...the dates with the price of accommodation i already have IF(B3=DATE(2015,1,1),"7500","0").....

    Now I want to have a formula where by I when the start date of the itinerary changes, then all the dates in the in the itinerary change and this change in starting date will also lead to a change on the prices.

    Thanks

  31. HI Svetlana,
    I'm trying to write a formula that returns me 'true' or 'false' depending on whether there's a £ sign in a cell with numbers, ie: £32 gives 'true', but
    €32 gives 'false.
    I've tried your:
    =IF(ISNUMBER(FIND("£",G7)),"true","false") and
    =IF(ISTEXT(FIND("£",G7)),"true","false") ,
    and both of them with SEARCH instead of FIND
    but they don't work, presumably because £ isn't text or number. I vainly tried various things like ISCHARACTER and ISSYMBOL as well....
    Hope you can help.
    Thank you.
    Geoff

  32. Hey guys - it seems as though I came to the right place...I am using excel 2007 and trying to work a formula to check cell A1 for a value of 1 and if the value of 1 is there, then insert the current date in cell A2. Please help.

  33. IN YOU TUBE I AM FEELING EASY TO UNDERSTAND ANY CONCEPT REGARDING EXCEL BUT IN GOOGLE IT IS LITTLE BIT COMPLICATED FOR ME AS BECAUSE THERE IS NO VIDEO LIKE YOUTUBE AND ALSO I AM A PLAIN GRADUATE.PLEASE DON'T MEAN IT WHAT I HAVE WROTE.I AM HAVING VERY EAGER TO LEARN EXCEL BUT I AM 35 YEARS OLD.PLEASE SEND EASY SOLVED SOLUTION OF EXCEL VIDEO IN YOUTUBE AND IN GOOGLE.

    THANKS & REGARDS

  34. Hi,

    I am trying to figure out a formula for m aging. If its a negative number then its current, if it is between 1-29 days it's "30 Days", if it is between 30-59 days "60 Days",if it is between 60-119 days "90 Days" and if it is between 120-365 days its 120 days.

    Please Help!!!!

  35. Hi Svetlana,
    I would like the next cell to represent if it is higher, lower, or equal to the previous cell. Each cell represents a total of items for a month. Ideally, it would be an up or down arrow (in green or red) for the execs to immediately identify changes.

  36. Hi,
    I need some help, I'm new to the formulation.
    I need to create a sub-production plan link to another sub-plan
    but I don't know at all how to do it.
    Example sub-production have 2 shift opening stock,need create auto plan minus current balance 2 shift with quantity issue
    I need to create a sub-production plan link to another sub-plan.
    With opening 2 shift stock, current shift auto plan which minus stock issue from opening 2 shift stock to get return of 2 shift stock and 2nd auto shift will continue, once reach to one date which no plan, so auto plan automatically stop generate plan.
    Could it be done.
    Your deliberation on helping me is much appreciate.

  37. Hi - need some help in extracting xxxx from a column that has"router bgp xxxx". xxxx varies across cells. What function can i use to extract xxxx?

    Appreciate the help in advance!!!

  38. I have a spreadsheet that has maximum number of locations in column B and and minimum number of locations in column C that a client uses as a reference when choosing services. the client seeing these number enters their desired number of locations into column D which is where the formula would be entered. Want them to be able to put in their own number that will show on the spreadsheet BUT...I do not want it to let them enter a number that is lower than the minimum or higher than the maximum. I also do not want it to say false or OK I would like the number they have added to show.

    Additionally if they try to go less than min or more than max, I would like a pop up box saying "You must enter a number that is less than the maximum and greater than the minimum number allowed"

  39. I have two columns of numbers, side by side. New numbers are loaded into the left column each day (column 1). I want to save the historical high number in a cell beside it (in column 2). If the new number in column 1 is greater than the old historical number in column 2, I want the historical nigh number in column 2 to be changed to equal the new number that came into column 1.

    How do I do that?

  40. Hello, I am not sure if what I want done is possible. I am looking to say if "apple" is in cells a2:a36 and there is an amount in cells h2:h36 then I would like it to total those amounts. Is that possible?

  41. Hi,

    I am hoping to create a formula to use in conditional formatting that would allow me to perform the following:

    I have a list of employees in column A, date in column B, and number of sales in column C.

    I am wanting to conditionally format the sales cell (in column C) as new sales data is entered. I want to compare the new sales figure against the most recent number of sales for that particular employee. With a reduction in sales of >3 formatted red.

    Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

  42. I have 3 cells (L3,M3, N3) with either true or false as responses to earlier coding but need to highlight where I get answers that are True,False, True in that order . How do I achieve this?

  43. Please Help me :
    =if(a1=2366,2355,2353 then b1 will be 120, if(a1=2377,2357,2354 then b1 will be 130)) how can i put the formula..

  44. i need to make a formula in excel to put bonus marks, for example if kevin got 25 marks he will got another 25 bonus, if he got 50 then another 25, each 25+ mark got bonus of 25... i will put only the mark on one cell and i need in the bonus mark to calculated by excel in another cell... please help

  45. =IF(F2:F152="Yes", "G3"),(F2:F152="No", "G3") returned #VALUE! What is the issue?The logic I am trying to achieveshould be if F2 thru F152 = Yes then return the name G3 and if f2 thru f152 = No return the name in column G3. Can you give me the correct formula to achieve this?

  46. Hello,

    I want to write an If then statement that takes cell contents and adds the same word to different cells. For example. suppose CELLS A3:A36 are words related to education (i.e. test, assignment homework etc...) Now suppose I want to add the word "calendar" to the words in cells A3:A36. Which would return "test calendar", "assignment calendar", "homework calendar" etc..
    How would I go about doing that?

  47. hi,
    i need help please,
    how can i add number if my result is less than 0
    example;
    =(P9-DAY(TODAY())) and i got the result -1 i dont need to see - so i wanna add 30 how can i do that

    thx

  48. Please help, I need a formula like when you subtract A1-B1 if the answer is 0.something the answer will be 0.
    Like this one: =IF (A1-B1<1,"0")

    Thank you...

  49. asskm..
    saya ingin membuat satu rumus if :
    jika A1 berisi desimal maka B1 adalah 1, jika A1 berisikan teks maka B1 adalah 0,
    mohon bantuannya untuk bisa sy membuat rumus excelnya. terimakasih..

  50. i was making employee salary sheet , i am using three rows,1st row is total hours, 2nd row is basic overs & 3rd second row is over time , our company basic hours is eight.
    Example :-

    total overs = A1=10 B1=12 C1=A .....Ext.
    Baic overs = A2=8 B2=8 C2=A ....Ext.

    Over time = A3=2 B3=4 C3=X...Ext

    iam using basic overs A2 =IF(A1=8,"8",IF(A1="A","A"))))

    A3=(=IF(A1=8,X,IF(A1=8.5,.50,IF(A1=9,"1",IF(A1=9.5,1.50,IF(A1=10,2,IF(A1="A","X"))))))

    iam using this function ,but Sundays also working overtime . i need help you Sundays hours u need over time row which function use .......... please give him the reply

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