The IF Function

Part of the Fundamentals section of Coddy's Excel journey. Lesson 34 of 42.

So far every formula gave one answer, no matter what. But real life is full of decisions: if it's raining, take an umbrella, otherwise, sunglasses. Excel makes decisions with the IF function:

=IF(condition, value_if_true, value_if_false)

IF takes exactly three parts, separated by commas. First a condition, a question with a yes/no answer, like A1>=60 ("is A1 at least 60?"). Then the answer to show when the condition is true, and finally the answer when it's false.

=IF(A1>=60, "pass", "fail")

If A1 holds 75, this shows pass. Change A1 to 40 and the very same formula shows fail, the formula re-decides every time the data changes. Notice the quotes around pass and fail: text answers always go in double quotes, so Excel knows they're words to display, not cell names.

The answers don't have to be text. =IF(A1>100, A1*0.9, A1) gives a 10% discount only on orders over 100, numbers, formulas and text all work as the true/false answers. One question, two possible outcomes: that's IF.

Try it yourself

This lesson doesn't include a code challenge.