IF
Choose between two results depending on whether a condition is true.
Syntax
IF(logical_test, value_if_true, [value_if_false])| Argument | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
logical_test | Required | Anything that evaluates to TRUE or FALSE. |
value_if_true | Required | What to return when the test passes. |
value_if_false | Optional | What to return when it fails. Omitted, you get FALSE. |
Examples
Every example below was executed against VisiGrid engine 0.35.0 — not
transcribed from another vendor's documentation. Reproduce any of them with vgrid calc.
| Formula | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|
=IF(A1>5,"big","small") | big | |
=IF(1>2,"y","n") | n | |
=IF(A1>5,"big") | big | |
=IF(A1<5,"small") | FALSE | Omitting the third argument returns FALSE, not blank — rarely what anyone wants. |
Always give the third argument
Leaving it off does not produce an empty cell. It produces the word FALSE,
which then flows into whatever reads that cell and turns arithmetic into
#VALUE! further down. If you want blank, say so:
=IF(A1<5, "small", "")Nesting, and when to stop
Two or three levels is readable. Beyond that, IF inside IF inside IF
becomes a puzzle, and IFS says the same thing as a flat
list of conditions. For matching one value against several fixed options,
SWITCH is shorter still.
A common mistake is using IF to catch errors — IF(ISERROR(x), 0, x)
evaluates x twice. IFERROR evaluates it once, and
IFNA is narrower again.
Excel compatibility
Matches Excel, including returning FALSE when value_if_false is omitted.