CHAPTER 14Using Formulas for Conditional Analysis

Excel provides several worksheet functions for performing conditional analysis. You'll use some of those functions in this chapter. Conditional analysis means performing different actions depending on whether a condition is met.

Understanding Conditional Analysis

A condition is a value or expression that returns TRUE or FALSE. Based on the value of the condition, a formula can branch into two separate calculations. That is, when the condition returns TRUE, one value or expression is evaluated while the other is ignored. A FALSE condition reverses the flow of the formula, and the first value or expression is ignored while the other is evaluated.

In the following sections, you'll explore some of the logical functions available in Excel.

Checking if a simple condition is met

Figure 14.1 shows a list of states with monthly gas prices. Say you want to determine whether a state's price in a given month is above or below the average of all the states for the same month. For higher-than-average prices, you will report “High” and for lower than average, “Low.” A grid below the data ...

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