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Level 1

11 points

Creating a simple IF-THEN formula

I'm almost embarrassed to ask this, but I have searched the "iWork Formula and Function Help" in vain, and any similar questions asked in these forums are complex and really unrelated to what I need to do. What is the basic syntax for an IF-THEN formula in Numbers 09?

For example: I want one cell to show the sum of two other cells, but if that sum is over a certain limit, I want it to show the limit. In other words I want to tell Numbers something like this: "If C1 plus C2 are less than 24, enter the sum of C1 plus C2. If their sum is more than 24, enter 24." I've been looking for two hours now, and I simply cannot find anything that gives me the basic syntax to such a statement, certainly not in "iWork Formula and Function Help." Please help if you can. Thanks.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 7, 2012 1:13 PM

Best reply

jaxjason

Level 5

5,047 points

Posted on May 7, 2012 1:39 PM

Building a little on what Wayne gave you, the actual syntax is basically the following:

IF( <some test that will result in a true or false>, <What to do if the test is true>, <What to do if False>)

The test is going to -almost- always going to include a cell reference and comparison sign, like A2=2 or like in Waynes above (C1+C2)<25.

The place to put what you would want if True or False contains the equation (note that it's without the equal sign). But it is the actual equation you would have typed by hand.

so in Waynes example (formatted with the areas with similar formatting to help you see where each part matches up):

IF( <some test that will result in a true or false>, <What to do if the test is true>, <What to do if False>)

IF((C1+C2)<25, C1+C2, 24)

Jason

View in context

20 replies

Sep 3, 2013 11:15 AM in response to NDeanM

What if I want to have numbers check for a non Boolean entry and add together all numbers associated with that category. For example, in a budget I have multiple categories like Groceries, etc. I want to be able to find all items in each category and sum the individual items to produce a total for each category.

Sep 3, 2013 11:20 AM in response to j.scottsikes

you can use a conditional test for a range of test values like:

=sumif(A, "Groceries", B)

column A refers to the test values

column B refers the sum value

you can replace the fixed test value "Groceries" with a cell reference is needed in which case the cell you reference would contains the text condition. When a cell in column A equals the value in the second argument ("Groceries" in this case) the corresponding value in the same row of column B is accumulated into the sum

Sep 3, 2013 11:49 AM in response to Wayne Contello

I almost have it I think, however it's still not working. I have SUM(IF(Column C, "Groceries", column D))

Column C heading is Category

Column D heading is Amount

So it really reads SUM(IF(Category, "Groceries", Amount))

The error I get says, Argument 1 of IF expects a Boolean but found "Restaurant."

Sep 3, 2013 12:05 PM in response to j.scottsikes

no it is SUMIF one word as I wrote. To get detailed help in Numbers select the menu item "View > Show Function Browser"

Sep 3, 2013 12:12 PM in response to Wayne Contello

My fault. Just couldn't find the SUMIF function before. Thanks for the help. It's working now.

Creating a simple IF-THEN formula