Using the CHOOSE function

**knrkaplan** · 10-30-2009, 05:02 PM

Could someone give me a relatively simple example of when it would be useful to use the CHOOSE function?

**zbor** · 10-30-2009, 05:05 PM

There's plenty options.

One way is to search forum and see how others use it.

Elemental way is to go in Excel help and see basic examples.

**teylyn** · 10-30-2009, 08:42 PM

Hi,

CHOOSE can be used for looking up values if you don't want to create a lookup table, but rather have the lookup functionality within the formula. CHOOSE needs a number for the first argument.

=CHOOSE(B24,"apples","bananas","oranges")

if B24 = 1, then the result will be "apples", if B24 = 2, the result will be "bananas", etc.

CHOOSE can also be used to avoid long, nested if statements, like

=IF(B24=1,"apples",IF(B24=2,"bananas",IF(B24=3,"oranges), [etc..] )))

The IF statement does the same, but in XL 2003 is limited to 7 levels of nesting. With Choose, you can create a cleaner formula with more than 7 choices.

hth

**thompsy121** · 10-31-2009, 08:40 AM

Hi there,

As teylyn has advised...

=CHOOSE(B24,"apples","bananas","oranges")

if B24 = 1, then the result will be "apples", if B24 = 2, the result will be "bananas", etc.

Another option could be rather than relying on the user typing numbers to get the outcome "example typing 1 would display apples", you could create a combo box (multiple combo boxes if needed) on sheet1.

Then on a second sheet use the choose formula to pull the selected data from the combo box so it appears in a table etc on sheet 2.

Thanks