How to understand and apply conditional formulas in Excel?
Conditional formulas in Excel are powerful and essential tools for working with data. If you have ever had to make decisions based on specific criteria or sort data according to certain conditions, you will know how valuable these formulas can be. The basic principle is that if a condition is true (affirmative value), an action is taken, and if it is not true (false value), another action is taken. With Excel, you can build formulas that perform these checks automatically, saving time and effort. Join us to unravel how to handle these formulas and maximize their potential.
How to apply a basic conditional formula?
Let's start with a simple example to reinforce the concept. Suppose we are grading an exam and we want to determine whether a grade is passing or failing. The criterion is that if the grade is 7 or higher, it is passing. If it is less, the student has failed.
- Open the
SI
formula: We start with =SI(
.
- Define the condition: In this case, if cell C3 containing the grade is greater than or equal to 7.
- Value when the condition is true: The text "passed".
- Value when the condition is false: The text "failed".
- Complete syntax:
=SI(C3>=7, "passed", "failed").
This not only shows the power of conditional formulas, but also makes it easy to handle large volumes of data efficiently.
How to handle multiple conditions?
Decisions involving multiple criteria are common and Excel allows us to nest conditions. For example, checking whether a set of cells contain specific values in rows, such as checking whether both cells say "Platzi" and "Excel".
- Condition 1: If cell F3 contains "Platzi".
- Condition 2: If cell G3 contains "Excel".
- Combination of conditions: Use
AND
in Excel: =SI(AND(F3="Platzi", G3="Excel"), "valid", "invalid")
.
This formula is useful to make sure that the entire row meets all the specified requirements before giving an affirmative result.
How to work with larger databases?
When working with large databases, we often want to filter data quickly based on investment expectations. Suppose we have an investment expectation for 2018.
- Define expectation: if the investment is greater than 50 million, the investment is "interesting".
- Empty leaflet for unfulfilled unconditions: Simply include quotation marks:
""
.
- Complete syntax for a specific cell:
=SI(B3>50000000, "interesting", "")
.
These formulas allow you to automatically identify rows that meet certain criteria, facilitating quick data analysis.
What to do when there is an error in the formulas?
Formulas can produce unexpected results. If a formula shows "false", it is because no alternative value was assigned to that condition. To solve this problem, be sure to always cover both true and false conditions in your formulas.
How to practice efficient conditional formulas?
Practice is essential. Try formulating differences, such as identifying investments where the sector is "agribusiness" and there was investment in 2016. The key here is to understand how to use inequality operators(<>
) to recognize unmet conditions.
- Second condition:
=SI(Y(A2="agro-industrial", B2>0), "agro 2016", "")
.
Recommendations for mastering the use of formulas.
- Practice with different scenarios to discover how formulas react to different data.
- Start with simple examples and progress to more complex cases by applying multiple conditions.
- Use comparison operators wisely
(=
, <>
, >
, <, <,
>=,
<=
).
- Save your experiments in separate files to avoid losing important data.
In conclusion, expert handling of conditional formulas in Excel will allow you not only to automate tasks, but also to make data-driven analytical decisions more quickly and accurately. I encourage you to explore, experiment and master this valuable resource!
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