It’s a very flexible function that you could use in all sorts of ways.
Let’s take a look.
We have five test scores in columns D through H, and an average in column I.
To pass, students need to achieve an average of 70 or greater.
Anything lower is a fail.
This is a perfect program for theIF function.
To start off, I’ll key in an equal sign, IF, and an opening parentheses.
So, to pass, a student needs an average of 70 or greater.
If I copy that value down, we’ll see which students passed.
What if we want to do it the other way around, and show which students failed?
Now the formula reports which students failed.
Let’s adjust the formula to show both pass and fail.
To do that, I need to add the third argument for value if false.
Now each student in the list gets either a pass or a fail.
Let’s do one more thing to make this example more interesting.
Let’s make the passing score an input on the worksheet that can be easily changed.
I’ll also name the input cell to make the new formula easier to read.
Now I just need to update the formula to use the input cell and copy it down.
