Week 9: Clear IF Functions

Functions are one of the most essential applications of the excel spreadsheet. Without functions many uses of excel would be much more tedious. Usually functions utilize mathematical calculations to achieve some numerical value as a result. One type of excel function that is not usually used to derive a numerical value as a result is the “IF” function.

The IF function is basically a statement that derives true or false as a result. An IF function asks a question of the data, and there is only a set amount of definitive results. For example, suppose you are a basketball recruiter for a college. You have scouted over 100 players. Since you have so many players to choose from you would like to focus only on the players who are above 6 feet tall so you can get rid of the less significant shorter players. You have the heights of all the players on an excel spreadsheet (in cells A1:A125). To categorize these players as “tall” or “short” use the function =IF(A1>6,”tall”,”short”). After this information is calculated in cell B1, copy and paste the formula to cell B2:B125.

Again, the IF function is perfect if you have data in which you wish to sort into different categories.