Take Control of Numbers, 3rd Edition

Master IF Statements and Logical Operators

This chapter starts with the concept of truth, as interpreted by a spreadsheet formula, with a quick side trip to Review Comparison Operators; after that, we’ll Construct IF Statements. You’ll Learn About Logical Operators (AND, OR, and NOT), and then you’ll Put It All Together to construct a formula. Finally, you’ll see how to Construct Nested IF Statements, an incredibly convenient and flexible calculation tool.

What Is Truth?

What is truth? Surely, a question for the ages. Except in a spreadsheet, where the definitions for true and false are straightforward:

• Numbers and expressions that evaluate to numbers: A zero is false, and all other numbers are true. So, 42 is true; so are 3÷5, and -15, and ...