Hi!

This is my best guess at what you want:

If any cell in the range Leave!E5:E9 contains any one of the letter
variables, return that letter, otherwise, return "X". Only one cell may
contain a letter.

List the letter variables in a range somewhere, say, A1:A6.

=IF(SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIF(A1:A6,Leave!E5:E9)),INDEX(L eave!E5:E9,MATCH("*",Leave!E5:E9,0)),"X")

There is a limit of 7 nested levels of functions. you had 12.

Biff

"Kypreo" wrote in message
...
i have the folling formula, but excel doesn't seem to accept it

=IF(Leave!E5="A","A",IF(Leave!E5="I","I",IF(Leave! E5="S","S",IF(Leave!E5="L","L",IF(Leave!E5="T","T" ,IF(Leave!E5="R","R",IF(Leave!E6="A","A",IF(Leave! E6="I","I",IF(Leave!E6="S","S",IF(Leave!E6="L","L" ,IF(Leave!E6="T","T",IF(Leave!E6="R","R",IF(Leave! E7="A","x")))))))))))))

i need to have all those letters for each of the 5 cells being
referenced...
currently using Excel 2000 9.0.6926 SP-3.

if there is a limitation.. how do i get around it ?