IF command, limit to number of entries?

[timhiley]

I am designing a spreadsheet to monitor progress through levels in the English National curriculum. Children are given a level at the end of the year from w, 1c,1b,1a,2c,2b,2a etc up to 5a.

I am trying to convert the text eg "2a" into a value ie 7. I have managed to do this using the IF function however when i get up to a certain number of if statements it seems to stop excepting any more. Is there a limit and if so is there a way around it.

The formula I am using is as shown below.

=IF(S5="w",1,(IF(S5="1c",2,(IF(S5="1b",3,(IF(S5="1a",4,(IF(S5="2c",5,(IF(S5="2b",6,(IF(S5="2a",7,(IF(S5="3c",8,"error")))))))))))))))

I want the formula to continue from where it say "error" to (if(s5="3b",9,(if(S5="3a",10,(if(s5="4c",11,(............ etc, etc

Where it says "error" at the end the sequence should continue all the way to "5a"

I am new to using excel in this way and any help would be much appreciated.

[Gary''s Student]

One approach is to use a VLOOKUP table. See:

http://www.contextures.com/xlFunctions02.html


--
Gary''s Student


"timhiley" wrote:

>
> I am designing a spreadsheet to monitor progress through levels in the
> English National curriculum. Children are given a level at the end of
> the year from w, 1c,1b,1a,2c,2b,2a etc up to 5a.
>
> I am trying to convert the text eg "2a" into a value ie 7. I have
> managed to do this using the IF function however when i get up to a
> certain number of if statements it seems to stop excepting any more. Is
> there a limit and if so is there a way around it.
>
> The formula I am using is as shown below.
>
> =IF(S5="w",1,(IF(S5="1c",2,(IF(S5="1b",3,(IF(S5="1a",4,(IF(S5="2c",5,(IF(S5="2b",6,(IF(S5="2a",7,(IF(S5="3c",8,"error")))))))))))))))
>
> I want the formula to continue from where it say "error" to
> (if(s5="3b",9,(if(S5="3a",10,(if(s5="4c",11,(............ etc, etc
>
> Where it says "error" at the end the sequence should continue all the
> way to "5a"
>
> I am new to using excel in this way and any help would be much
> appreciated.
>
>
> --
> timhiley
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>

[timhiley]

thanks very much, this solves my problem!